Great Value Lactose Free Milk

A reader submitted the following tip concerning Great Value Lactose-Free Reduced Fat 2% Milk from Wal-Mart:

We came across this after my wife consumed the Walmart brand Lactose Free milk and suffered a bad reaction, typical to lactose milk. She confirmed the reaction by consuming the Walmart Lactose Free milk again after a few days of no symptoms (and no Walmart Lactose Free milk) and the symptoms returned. No such symptoms are experienced with other brands of 100% lactose free milk.

According to Wal-Mart customer service:

GV Lactose Free Milk is 100% lactose free; this means it contains the National Brand equivalent of less than .5 grams of lactose per serving.

The FDA has no definition for lactose-free, but it does say:

Manufacturers must provide on their food labels information that is truthful and not misleading. This means a lactose-free product should not contain any lactose, and a lactose-reduced product should be one with a meaningful reduction. Therefore, the terms lactose-free and lactose-reduced have different meanings, and a lactose-reduced product may still contain lactose that could cause symptoms.

Consumers who want to avoid lactose completely may want to avoid this and other similar products.