TikToker Discovers That ‘Non-Dairy’ Creamer Contains Real Milk

When you hear the term “non-dairy” you would assume that it meant that there was no dairy products in that item. In reality, some creamers actually have real dairy milk in it despite its seemingly straightforward label.

TikTok user @NashvilleBook Girl, real name Alisa, made the big revelation in a video on the social media platform that has garnered a lot of attention. She was at a diner when she made the discovery. She held up a coffee creamer packet and showed the label that read, “UHT non-dairy.” Despite this, milk was in the ingredients list. Alisa and her friend began to research the difference between non-dairy and dairy free products.

“It turns out ‘dairy-free’ means the complete absence of all dairy ingredients, including lactose, and ‘non-dairy’ refers to products that contain a milk derivative,” the man said in the video. “So if you want dairy-free, it has to say ‘dairy-free.’ ‘Non-dairy’ still has dairy.”

Their research was correct but there are more details behind it. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Food Allergy Research & Resource Program cited that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) does not have a regulatory definition for the term, “dairy-free.” There are no official regulations regarding such label, although the FDA does not approve of any misleading or false statements on food labels. This makes it a grey area for the terminology to be used regularly.

As for the term, “non-dairy,” there is an FDA approved regulatory definition, which allows the “non-dairy” products to have the milk protein, casein, which means that “non-dairy” items will not always be milk-free. The FDA does require that milk derivatives have to be followed by a parenthetical explanation of a dairy ingredient.

People shared their confusion and frustration in the comments section of the video.Reminds me of caffeine-free vs. decaf. Decaf is taking caffeine out of something but could still have some in it. Caffeine free never had any caffeine in it so there’s none in it,” one person noted. Another added, “I saw one that says non-dairy and below it says contains: dairy.”