Why lactose-free is going to be massive in Asia

The growth of lactose-free in Asia – now and into the future – could be linked to behavioral and dietary choices taken in the very distant past!

Here’s an interesting statistic that some of you may have already come across. There are likely to be at least forty times more people suffering from lactose intolerance in an Asian country like Vietnam than in a north European country like Denmark. In fact, an estimated 90-100% of adults in East Asia and 80% in Central Asia have an impaired ability to digest lactose.¹ This contrasts with around 2% in Denmark.

My first thought on reading this was to ask “why?” One possible answer lies in the extent to which human cultures have historically relied on dairy as an important source of nutrition. Adults from Europe can drink milk because their ancestors lived where dairying flourished and passed on gene mutations that maintain lactase into adulthood. In other areas of the world such as Africa and many parts of Asia, dairy farming has historically been less feasible, and people lost the ability to digest milk after infancy.²

^{1 de Vrese M, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2001;73 (suppl):421s–9s.
2 http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2005/06/lactose-intolerance-linked-ancestral-struggles-climate-diseases}

Asia is clearly an important market for lactose-free, for local manufacturers as well as Western producers wanting to export. At DSM we supply enzymes, solutions for sugar reduction and vitamins for lactose-free and healthy dairy. Drop me an email and I would be delighted to talk with you about how we can support your specific lactose-free plans for Asia.