There are many reasons why you might want to avoid consuming dairy products. Perhaps you’re a vegan who avoids consuming all foods that come from animals, are on a special diary-free diet, have a milk allergy or are lactose intolerant. Whatever the reason, the first step to having a dairy-free diet is to figure out what foods have dairy. One common food that you might need to look at closely is bread. Does it have dairy?
Unfortunately, many kinds of bread contain dairy. In order to avoid dairy while still enjoying bread, you’ll need to look carefully at the ingredients. While milk may not be a specific ingredient, it’s very possible milk byproducts are listed. One shortcut is to look for bread that’s labeled “dairy-free”.
Some common examples of bread containing dairy include:
These are commonly made with milk or milk byproducts, such as whey, butterfat or casein. Luckily, there are several easy substitutes that truly are dairy-free. To avoid dairy, make your own bread crumbs by crumbling up dairy-free bread, or using panko.
When you ask yourself “does bread have dairy?” chances are you’re thinking about processed sandwich bread. Sure enough, most contain milk products, like casein, whey or nonfat milk power. Sometimes processed sandwich bread will have all the three ingredients.
Quick breads don’t contain traditional leavening ingredients, like yeast. Common types of quick bread include banana bread, pancakes and biscuits. If you’ve ever made any of these quick breads, you probably know that they might include milk, butter, whey protein and even nonfat milk powder.
These are the most traditional breads. Certain yeast breads, like croissants, can be assumed to have dairy in them. Other types, such as French bread, usually won’t have dairy. Even if they don’t seem to have dairy in it, consider that cooks will sometimes coat the bread pans or brush the top of the loaf with butter.
Due to the answer to "does bread have dairy" you may want to make your own dairy-free bread at home.
Ingredients“Does bread have dairy” is only the first question to ask concerning dairy products. Eating a full and healthy diet while avoiding dairy isn’t easy, but it’s certainly possible with the following steps.
This is usually the hardest step since dairy is such a tasty food group! Besides milk, some more common milk or cream-based foods include yogurt, ice cream, custard, whipping cream and coffee creamer.
Most butter and margarine are made with milk, whey and/or casein and all of the ingredients are dairy-based. Butter is essentially processed milk that has been curdled. For vegans, there are animal byproduct-free margarines. For those who are lactose intolerant, butter is generally low in lactose.
Cheese is made from milk and is a classic form of dairy. However, not all cheeses have the same amount of lactose in them. The more processed and soft a cheese is, the more lactose is usually present. In contrast, harder, aged cheeses usually have less lactose. So those who are lactose intolerant may be able to better enjoy aged cheese.
Because milk and milk byproducts are common ingredients in seemingly dairy-free foods to improve its taste, you’ll need to see if milk is an ingredient. Per FDA rules, if a form of dairy is present in the food, milk will be listed as one of the ingredients.