Tips for shopping: What you should watch out for.

Have you just had an assessment that came out positive for lactose intolerance? The next time you go to the supermarket you might stand puzzled in front of the shelves and you might ask yourself, what exactly are you allowed to eat and above all: you do you recognise it. This puzzled feeling should go away with the help of these tips:

1. Take a look at the business card The label

When shopping you should now studying the label of the food products carefully. One could say that the label is the business card of the product. Here you will find the following listed:

• Ingredients- even those often cause allergies or intolerances
• Nutritional value and energy content
• Use-by date

2. The list of ingredients
   Milk sugar is disguised in the list of ingredients not just under the term lactose. If you should find one of the following terms in the list, you should reconsider whether you want to buy it still. Also take note that the ingredients are listed in order of quantity, so that which is listed first has the highest quantity in the product. If the following terms are listed towards the end, then that in turn may mean that (depending on how bad your intolerance is) you may still be able to consume the product.
   Milk sugar can be disguised under the following terms:

• Milk sugar
• Lactose
• Lactose monohydrate
• Milk
• Cream/ Double cream
• Milk powder
• Whey
• Powdered milk
• Butter
  Here there is NO milk sugar inside:
• Lactate
•  Milk protein
• Lactic acid
• Lactic acid bacteria/ fermented lactic acid

3. Packaging or portion?
   Take notice of the following when looking at the list of ingredients: Is the content of lactose in grams related to a portion, or the whole content of lactose inside the packaging? A specified portional amount can be multiplied to find out the lactose content in the corresponding total amount in the packaging.
4. Not set in stone: The ingredients can change
   Some food producers change the composition of their products. Therefore it‘s worth taking a regular look at the list of ingredients of the products you know.
5. Baker‘s, Butcher‘s, etc.
   Previously a look at the list of ingredients wasn‘t generally possible at the baker‘s or at a food stand. Since the 13th of December 2014 labeling of allergens has indeed been obligatory in the EU. That means for foods that arent packaged and loose goods: The information about allergens must either br given orally or written somewhere. That of course makes shopping a whole lot easier for people who are lactose intolerant. You can‘t completely rely on it for loose goods, but for packaged products you can.