Nutrition · Dairy · Lactose Intolerance · Food Safety · East Asia · Southeast Asia · ComparisonSources read 16 October 2026
Milk, curd and sugar
Dairy in East and Southeast Asia
From fresh and long-life milk to condensed milk, yoghurt, rushan, dadiah, aaruul and kesong puti, the dairy sold across East and Southeast Asia runs from a cheap source of calcium to something closer to a syrup. Three facts sort it. Most adults in the region no longer make enough of the enzyme that digests lactose, so how much lactose a product carries, and whether it has live cultures, decides how well it is tolerated. Added sugar, not fat, is what separates several of the region’s commonest dairy drinks from milk. And raw milk still causes brucellosis outbreaks in China’s pastoral north. The dietary guidelines meant to settle how much to drink currently point in opposite directions: China raised its figure in 2022, and Taiwan has drafted a cut.
What Happened
What is established, and how firmly Each finding with its standing first, read at the publishers’ own pages on 16 October 2026.
- 72–97%of East Asians without lactase persistence, from a reported 3–28% with it
- >90%of adults in Southeast Asia lactase-deficient
- 53.2 gof available carbohydrate, by mass, in 100 g of sweetened condensed milk
- 54.4reported human brucellosis cases per 100,000 in Inner Mongolia, 2019
| Standing | Finding | Where it was read |
|---|---|---|
| Confirmed — primary text read | Ten dairy items differ by an order of magnitude per 100 g: skimmed milk powder 1,100 mg of calcium, salted butter 15 mg; sweetened condensed milk 56.0 g of carbohydrate, milk 4.8 g. | Japan’s government food-composition database, 2023 supplement |
| Confirmed — primary text read | The EU authorises one claim here: live cultures in yoghurt or fermented milk improve lactose digestion of the product, at no fewer than 10⁸ CFU of starter cultures per gram. | Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 |
| Confirmed — primary text read | Japan’s Food Balance Guide sets 2 SV of milk and dairy a day; Malaysia’s Food Pyramid 2020 sets 2 servings. | Japan’s agriculture and health ministries; Malaysia’s Ministry of Health |
| Confirmed — primary text read | Taiwan’s Health Promotion Administration has drafted a cut in dairy from 1.5–2 cups a day to one (240 ml). It was still a draft in the latest report read, of 1 April 2026. | Central News Agency, 5 March and 1 April 2026 |
| Confirmed — peer-reviewed study | Lactase persistence in East Asian populations is reported at 3–28%; in Southeast Asia more than 90% of adults are lactase-deficient. | PNAS, March 2025; American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2019 |
| Confirmed — peer-reviewed study | In a 2019 sample of 103 older adults at a Jakarta outpatient clinic, 66% (57–75%) were lactose-intolerant by breath test and symptoms. | Clinical Nutrition ESPEN, 2021 (abstract) |
| Confirmed — peer-reviewed study | China CDC reports hundreds of brucellosis cases from raw milk, including an outbreak of 122 cases from unpasteurised ewe’s milk in Guangxi in 2016. | China CDC Weekly, November 2020 |
| Confirmed, not verifiable here — second-hand | Reported brucellosis rates for 2019 per 100,000: Inner Mongolia 54.4, Ningxia 31.96, Xinjiang 16.3 (third in China). | Cited from national surveillance within a 2025 study (Frontiers in Microbiology) |
| Confirmed, not verifiable here — second-hand | China’s 2022 dietary guidelines raise milk and dairy from 300 g to 300–500 g a day. | A provincial news site’s report; the guideline text was not read |
| Confirmed, not verifiable here — second-hand | The EU’s food-safety authority based its 2010 opinion on 14 human studies, 13 of them positive. | Trade press, November 2010; the authority’s page refused |
| Not found | A final version of Taiwan’s guideline; a South Korean government dairy figure. The only Korean figure found, two glasses a day, comes from a 2015 forum hosted by the milk industry’s check-off committee. | Searched for; not found in anything read |
What is settled
What these products contain, how common lactose non-persistence is, and that raw milk spreads brucellosis: no source read disputes any of it.
What is not
How much dairy a guideline should ask for. China raised its figure, Taiwan has drafted a cut, and the arguments on both sides are in section three.
Timeline
From the EU’s yoghurt claim to Taiwan’s unfinished draft Every row is a dated document or a dated event. The traditional techniques have no date, and are in section four.
- 2010The EU’s food-safety authority finds that live yoghurt cultures improve lactose digestion, on 13 positive studies of 14 (as reported).
- 16 May 2012Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 lists the claim, at no fewer than 10⁸ CFU of starter cultures per gram.
- Dec 2015In Seoul, a forum hosted by the milk industry’s check-off committee presents a two-glasses-a-day guideline for adults.
- 2016Pinggui County, Guangxi: unpasteurised ewe’s milk causes a brucellosis outbreak of 122 cases.
- 2018Guangdong lists the technique of double-skin milk, made from buffalo milk, as provincial intangible heritage.
- 2019Reported brucellosis per 100,000: Inner Mongolia 54.4, Ningxia 31.96, Xinjiang 16.3. China records 56 brucellosis public-health emergencies, 8 of them related to raw milk.
- 2019UNESCO inscribes Mongolia’s technique of making airag in a cowhide vessel. In Jakarta, the lactose-intolerance sample of 103 older adults is collected.
- 2020Wuhua County, Guangdong: an outbreak from raw goat milk is reported. Malaysia’s Food Pyramid 2020 sets 2 servings of milk and milk products a day.
- 2022China’s dietary guidelines raise milk and dairy to 300–500 g a day.
- Mar 2025A paper in PNAS restates that lactase persistence in East Asian populations is reported at 3–28%.
- Early Mar 2026Taiwan’s Health Promotion Administration pre-announces a draft cutting dairy to one cup a day.
- 31 Mar 2026The comment period closes with more than 50 comments, dairy the most disputed; the Ministry of Agriculture asks for the existing figure to be kept.
- 1 Apr 2026The administration says an expert meeting will follow, aiming to finalise the guideline within the year.
What could not be dated. None of the traditional techniques — rushan, dadiah, dangke, kesong puti, aaruul, ginger milk curd — can be dated from the sources read; they are described in section four. Nor can the end of Taiwan’s story: no report after 1 April 2026 says whether the one-cup draft became the guideline.
The Argument
The form of the dairy matters more than the amount The case the nutrition, regulatory and surveillance sources make together — and the guideline dispute that complicates it.
Lactose
Fermentation and ageing work around a missing enzyme
- Lactase persistence is reported at 3–28% in East Asian populations, and the five known persistence alleles are almost absent there (Ma and colleagues, PNAS, 2025, citing the global lactase-persistence database).
- In Southeast Asia more than 90% of adults are lactase-deficient (Forsgård, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2019). Adults in Penang and Kota Bharu ate a mean of 0.1 servings of dairy a day (Lee and Wan Muda, 2019).
- The one claim the EU authorises here is that live yoghurt cultures improve the digestion of the product’s own lactose. Processed cheese carries 0.1 g of available carbohydrate per 100 g against milk’s 4.4 g (Japan’s tables).
Sugar
Sugar is where the drinks part company with milk
- Sweetened condensed milk: 53.2 g of available carbohydrate per 100 g by mass, 56.0 g of carbohydrate in all.
- A lactic acid bacteria drink: 15.1 g, with a third of milk’s protein (1.1 g against 3.3 g) and 39% of its calcium (43 mg against 110 mg).
- Sweetened skimmed yoghurt: 11.2 g, about three times plain whole yoghurt’s 3.8 g. Evaporated milk is unsweetened, with about twice milk’s protein and two and a half times its calcium.
Raw milk
Raw milk is the acute risk
- China CDC reports hundreds of brucellosis cases from raw milk, with outbreaks from ewe’s milk in Guangxi (2016) and goat milk in Guangdong (reported 2020) (Piao and colleagues, China CDC Weekly, 2020).
- Older people, children and the immunocompromised are named as high-risk, because they are the more likely drinkers of raw milk.
- In Xinjiang, camel milk drunk raw is a suspected route (PLOS ONE, 2024).
| Who | Position on how much | Reason given |
|---|---|---|
| China, 2022 guidelines (as reported) | Raise to 300–500 g a day | Dairy intake is low: per head, a third of the world average in 2019, according to the news report. |
| Taiwan’s Health Promotion Administration (draft) | Cut to one cup (240 ml); older people and adolescents up to 1.5–2 on professional advice | People drink about half a cup now; milk emits 3.15 kg CO₂e per kg against 0.98 for soy drink; most energy levels still meet calcium needs. It says this is not advice to drink less. |
| A hospital nutrition head and nutrition academics, Taiwan | Support the cut | Lactose intolerance is more common than in Europe or the US; a reachable target beats an ignored one. |
| Taiwan’s dairy association | Raise to 2–3 cups | Calcium intake is already short. |
| Taiwan’s Ministry of Agriculture | Keep the existing figure | Most countries recommend 2–3 servings; the industry must be weighed too. |
| A Korean milk-industry forum, 2015 | Two glasses a day for adults | Calcium is the nutrient Koreans fall shortest on. Hosted by the industry’s check-off committee, not the government. |
Reading: form before amount
Reading. Taken together, the sources point less at how much dairy a person drinks than at which kind: live fermented milk and cheese for the lactose-intolerant, unsweetened rather than sweetened, pasteurised rather than raw.
Reading: one observation, two answers
Reading. China’s raise and Taiwan’s draft cut start from the same observation — people drink little milk — and differ on what to do about it. Neither side, in the reports read, disputes what milk contains.
What Others Add
How each kind is made, and what is in it Composition from Japan’s government tables; processes and traditional methods from the studies and references that describe them.
| Per 100 g | kcal | Protein g | Fat g | Available carbohydrate g | Sodium mg | Calcium mg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole cow’s milk | 61 | 3.3 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 41 | 110 |
| Plain whole yoghurt | 56 | 3.6 | 3.0 | 3.8 | 48 | 120 |
| Sweetened skimmed yoghurt | 65 | 4.3 | 0.2 | 11.2 | 60 | 120 |
| Lactic acid bacteria drink | 64 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 15.1 | 18 | 43 |
| Sweetened condensed milk | 314 | 7.7 | 8.5 | 53.2 | 96 | 260 |
| Evaporated milk | 135 | 6.8 | 7.9 | (10.8) | 140 | 270 |
| Skimmed milk powder | 354 | 34.0 | 1.0 | 47.9 | 570 | 1,100 |
| Processed cheese | 313 | 22.7 | 26.0 | 0.1 | 1,100 | 630 |
| Dairy cream | 404 | 1.9 | 43.0 | 2.7 | 43 | 49 |
| Salted butter | 700 | 0.6 | 81.0 | 0.5 | 750 | 15 |
Available carbohydrate is given by mass. For milk, yoghurt and cheese it is essentially lactose; for the sweetened products it is lactose plus added sugar. Evaporated milk’s figure is bracketed in the table because it is an estimate. Total carbohydrate, the older measure, is higher: 56.0 g for sweetened condensed milk, 4.8 g for milk.
| Process | Conditions | Gives |
|---|---|---|
| Batch pasteurisation | 63 °C, 30 min | Pasteurised milk |
| High-temperature short-time | 72 °C, 15 s | Pasteurised milk |
| Ultra-high temperature | above 140 °C, 2–5 s | Long-life milk |
| Evaporation | about 60% of the water removed | Evaporated milk; with sugar added, sweetened condensed milk |
| Milk | What was measured |
|---|---|
| Cow | 3.8% fat, 3.3% protein, 110 mg calcium per 100 g |
| Water buffalo | Higher in fat and protein than other milks; no percentage in the sources read. The base of double-skin milk, ginger milk curd and kesong puti. |
| Yak | 5.5–7.5% fat, 4.0–5.9% protein and 4.0–5.9% lactose in the main lactation period; yak ghee 87.7% fat in one study |
| Mare | 6.4% lactose, strongly laxative; fermented into airag, samples held 0.10–3.36% lactose and 1.44–2.33% alcohol |
| Product, and where | How it sets | What the sources describe |
|---|---|---|
| Rushan, Yunnan | Acid | Cow’s-milk curd pulled into thin sheets, wrapped on bamboo and dried; eaten grilled with sweet toppings or deep-fried. Naizha, its yak-milk relative, is acid-set too. |
| Dangke, South Sulawesi | Papaya latex (papain) | One study found the best curd at 75 °C with 0.5% papaya latex, at 17.94% protein and 24.295% fat; it is brined and wrapped in banana leaf. |
| Ginger milk curd, Guangdong | Ginger protease | The protease cuts κ-casein. One account puts peak clotting near 63 °C, another at 70 °C; both say it fails above about 70–75 °C. |
| Kesong puti, Philippines | Vinegar or citrus; or rennet | Unaged white cheese of carabao milk. The government’s carabao centre advises pasteurising at 72–75 °C for 15 s, cooling to 40–45 °C, then adding rennet. |
| Dadiah, West Sumatra | Natural fermentation | Buffalo milk in bamboo tubes covered with banana leaves, 48 hours at room temperature; the bamboo wall carries the lactic acid bacteria. |
| Double-skin milk, Guangdong | Heat, then egg | Buffalo milk boiled and cooled for the first skin; mixed with egg and sugar at 10:1:1 by weight and steamed 20 minutes for the second. |
| Aaruul, byaslag, öröm, Mongolia | Acid from yoghurt; heat | Aaruul: boiled yoghurt, bagged, pressed under a stone for more than 10 hours, sliced and dried. Byaslag: fresh milk set with yoghurt and pressed. Öröm: boiling milk ladled until the cream froths and sets. |
| Qurt; chura | Acid or heat, then dried | Dried yoghurt products of this family are all salty. Chura (chhurpi) is boiled buttermilk drained in cloth; the hard kind is pressed and dried. |
| In the cup | What goes in |
|---|---|
| Hong Kong-style milk tea | Evaporated milk, or condensed milk |
| Thai tea; Vietnamese iced coffee | Sweetened condensed milk |
| Teh tarik | Evaporated and/or condensed milk |
| Non-dairy creamer | Often hydrogenated vegetable oil and corn-syrup solids; most contain no lactose, but many contain casein, a milk protein. |
Probiotics: one claim, and laboratory results
Of almost 400 probiotic health-claim applications in the EU, only the yoghurt-and-lactose claim was authorised, according to the probiotic industry’s European association. The bacteria isolated from dadiah show probiotic properties in laboratory tests; no human trial was read.
Reading: one figure out of line
Reading. The same dangke study reports 14.12% lactose, more than three times milk’s 4.4 g per 100 g, in a curd from which the whey has been drained. The sources do not explain it, and it is not used anywhere else on this page.
Conclusion
Which kind suits which need No winner: each kind has a use it is best at, and a trade-off that comes with it.
Fresh or long-life milk
Calcium and protein, for those who tolerate it
- Trade-off: 4.4 g of lactose per 100 g, which most adults in the region do not fully digest.
Plain yoghurt with live cultures
The lactose-intolerant
- Trade-off: sweetened yoghurt carries about three times the available carbohydrate of plain (11.2 g against 3.8 g).
Cheese
Calcium with almost no lactose
- Trade-off: 1,100 mg of sodium, 2.8 g of salt, per 100 g.
Evaporated milk
Tea and coffee
- Trade-off: 135 kcal per 100 g, more than twice milk’s 61.
Skimmed milk powder
Dense calcium and protein in a small amount
- Trade-off: 570 mg of sodium and 47.9 g of lactose-rich carbohydrate per 100 g of powder.
Dried traditional curds
Keeping, and protein, where refrigeration is scarce
- Trade-off: qurt-type products are salty, figures are single-study or missing, and anything made from raw milk carries its risks.
Butter, ghee, cream
Cooking fat and flavour
- Trade-off: count it as fat, not as dairy — salted butter is 81.0 g fat and 15 mg calcium per 100 g.
Condensed milk, lactic acid drinks, creamer
Taste
- Trade-off: 53.2 g and 15.1 g of available carbohydrate per 100 g for the first two; creamer is not a milk product, though many contain casein.
What to hold loosely
Traditional products rest on single studies, and some on descriptions alone. Lactose figures vary with the method: genotype, breath test or questionnaire. Taiwan’s one cup is a draft, and no Korean government figure was read. The probiotic findings for traditional ferments are laboratory results.
- Reading. For everyday calcium: plain milk if it agrees with you, otherwise plain yoghurt with live cultures, or cheese.
- Reading. In tea and coffee: evaporated or fresh milk rather than condensed milk or creamer.
- Reading. Count lactic acid drinks and sweetened yoghurt as sugary drinks, and butter, ghee and cream as fats.
- Reading. Choose pasteurised products, or boil raw milk before use; avoid raw milk, camel’s included, especially for older people, children and the immunocompromised.
Quick notes
- Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan, 8th edition, 2023 supplement (ten items)
- Ma and colleagues, PNAS 122(11), 2025
- Forsgård, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 110(2), 2019
- Dewiasty and colleagues, Clinical Nutrition ESPEN 43, 2021
- Lee and Wan Muda, Nutrition Research and Practice 13(2), 2019
- Choi, Journal of Animal Science and Technology 58, 2016
- Li and colleagues, International Journal of Molecular Sciences 12(8), 2011
- Wang and colleagues, Animals 14(20), 2024
- UNESCO, Traditional technique of making Airag in Khokhuur
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012
- NutritionInsight, 8 Nov 2010
- IPA Europe, European legal framework
- Amelia and colleagues, Food Science and Technology 41, 2021
- Shi, Wei and Huang, Food Research International 142, 2021
- Malaka and colleagues, Indian Journal of Agricultural Research 58(5), 2024
- Lan and colleagues, PLOS ONE 20(9), 2025
- Philippine Carabao Center, iASK B-02-2017
- Khymos, Ginger milk curd, 2014
- Selena Travel and Augi Travel on Mongolian dairy
- Wikipedia on rushan, dangke, ginger milk curd, kesong puti, kashk, chhurpi, pasteurisation, UHT processing, evaporated milk, Hong Kong-style milk tea, Thai tea, teh tarik, Vietnamese iced coffee and non-dairy creamer
- Luo and colleagues, Frontiers in Microbiology 16, 2025
- Xingxing and colleagues, PLOS ONE 19(10), 2024
- Piao and colleagues, China CDC Weekly 2(46), 2020
- jschina.com.cn, 20 May 2022
- Central News Agency, 5 Mar and 1 Apr 2026
- udn.com, 9 Mar, 31 Mar, 1 Apr and 2 Apr 2026
- TVBS, 5 Mar 2026
- ESG GVM, 17 Mar 2026
- Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on the Food Balance Guide
- Ministry of Health Malaysia, Malaysian Food Pyramid 2020
- Hankook Ilbo, 14 Dec 2015. All read 16 Oct 2026.