1. Dairy Free Food List
2. Dairy Free Cheese Products

Below, you'll find the best milk alternatives for lactose intolerance and milk/dairy allergies. We got you covered! Best Milk Alternatives for Lactose Intolerance Every milk alternative for the lactose intolerant has its own benefits, pros, and cons, but at the end of the day, they should not upset your stomach.

Whether you’re a full-time vegan, lactose intolerant or simply a flexitarian looking to make an easy daily switch, there’s a plethora of plant-based milk options to replace the regular cow’s milk many of us grew up with.

Over the last six years, sales of plant-based milks have doubled worldwide and there’s a number of reasons people are making the switch.

Dairy production contributes to climate change due to the high levels of greenhouse gas emissions it produces, so a plant-based milk is a better option for the planet. It’s also arguably better for humans, with many health benefits associated with reducing your dairy intake. Finally, it’s kinder to our cows and helps to reduce animal suffering.

Aside from this, plant milks are delicious. They can come in many different guises and aside from the ubiquitous almond milk, cashew and hazelnut varieties are also popular and widely available in most supermarkets.

Oat, rice, soy and coconut can also be used as the base ingredient, just look out for any added ingredients that you may not recognise. Although most taste great in smoothies and over breakfast cereal, some perform better in hot drinks than others – we’ve picked out some of our favourites for this below.

Many of these dairy free alternatives have the added benefit of being long life, meaning they don’t need to be refrigerated until they’ve been opened. So unlike their animal counterpart, you’ll always be able to keep a stand-by carton in the cupboard.

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Check the percentage of nuts used where appropriate, the more used, the more protein you can expect per glass (and the creamier it will be!)

You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

M*lkman Pistachio & Sweet Chai M*lk, 500ml: £3.75, Farmdrop

The m*lkman started off delivering his artisan nut m*lks by bicycle, but before long the demand was so great that he teamed up with Farmdrop to utilise their fleet of electric delivery vans.

The product is still handmade in London and bottled in reusable glass – you can even give the empties back to your delivery driver if you like.

It was so delicious that we drank it straight, but it was also excellent over granola and in our smoothies – it certainly didn’t hang around long.

This particular flavour is made with a whopping 12 per cent pistachios, a little date & agave for sweetness, a punchy kick of spicy chai and black pepper and a touch of pink salt. Creamy deliciousness.

Rude Health Peanut Drink, 1 litre: £2.49, Rude Health

A super versatile little number, not only does this taste great in peanut butter and banana smoothies, it’s also a brilliant addition to curry recipes.

Made up of 8 per cent nuts which are naturally low in cholesterol, they’re also a great source of Vitamin E and magnesium among others.

It joins the Rude Health line up of dairy free drinks of which there are now 13 in total, all of them following their philosophy that you should understand what all the ingredients are in the bottle. In this case just organic peanuts and water.

Rebel Kitchen Whole Dairy Free Organic Mylk, 1 litre : £2.24, Waitrose

This dairy free alternative uses coconut cream as its base, with full-fat, semi-skimmed and skimmed varieties on offer.

You shop them just like the traditional milk aisle, with helpful blue, green and red tops denoting the fat content. We liked the creamier full-fat version in our morning porridge, whilst the skimmed mylk frothed up beautifully for our coffee.

Alongside the coconut cream you’ll find spring water, a touch of Himalayan salt, brown rice, cashews, and nutritional yeast. All three are 100 per cent organic and suitable for vegans, and taste great in smoothies.

Botanic Lab Plant Milk Coffee & Damiana 1 250ml: £2.50, Ocado

Botanic Lab have incorporated functional botanical ingredients with activated cashew milk for a healthy, yet powerful dairy free alternative.

This blend features coconut oil to help stave off hunger pangs and damiana, a Central American herb known for its aphrodisiac and anxiety relieving properties – the perfect thing to balance out the cold-brewed arabica coffee.

A great start to the day, allowing us to wake up without any of the dreaded coffee jitters.

The Paleo Foods Co. Unsweetened Almond Drink 1L: £2.99, Waitrose

Boasting one of the highest nut contents we tried in a long life milk (9 per cent), Paleo Foods Co.’s almond drink is also one of the thickest and creamiest, with an obvious nutty taste.

For that reason we think it works best over granola or in smoothies. Download re-loader 1.4 rc 3. You can expect a decent protein hit with this – each 250ml serving provides 5g of plant protein, ideal if you’re hitting the gym.

Aside from nuts, the only other ingredient you’ll find is spring water. That’s it. Just make sure you give it a real good shake before pouring.

Oatly Barista Edition 1L: £1.85, Waitrose

One of the biggest bug bears when it comes to switching to plant milk, is how it can react in hot drinks.

Thankfully Swedish brand Oatly have designed a very clever Barista Edition, designed to froth up just like regular milk, so you don’t have to forfeit your beloved lattes any longer.

It’s made from Swedish oats (apparently they are the crème de la crème of the oat world!) so you can expect a good dose of fibre (great for your heart and digestion), and protein whilst keeping everything nice and low in saturated fat.

Califia Farms Toasted Oats N’ Almond Almond Milk, 750ml: £2.40, Sainsburys

With a whopping 50 per cent more calcium than cow’s milk and with no added sugar, Californian brand Califia is already super popular in the US, with it only recently making its way to UK shores.

The sunshine state is famously responsible for producing 80 per cent of the worlds almonds, so it makes sense they’d make a good almond milk too.

They use blanched almonds, rather than roasted, which results in the ultra-creamy texture. The whole range is soy-free, gluten free, kosher and vegan and this flavour has just 30 calories per serving. It didn’t curdle in our tea either.

Plenish Cashew M*lk, 1L: £2.50, Plenish

Winner of a Great Taste Award 2017, this creamy cashew drink tastes fantastic and is a natural source of plant protein without any of the nasties, making it a great option for post-gym smoothies.

It uses just three organic ingredients – cashews, filtered water and salt – which is better for you, and the environment.

Cashews are a particularly good source of copper, which will protect your cells. Keeping you nice and healthy from the inside out.

Dairy Free Food List

Innocent Almond Dairy Free 750ml: £1.75, Waitrose

Well known for their super cute smoothie bottles (who doesn’t love the knitted hats!), Innocent have turned their hands to dairy free milk alternatives.

There’s an oat drink and a hazelnut version, but almond gets our vote, made of three ingredients – nuts, spring water and a pinch of sea salt.

The brand is committed to sourcing sustainable ingredients and 10 per cent of profits go to their charity which tackles hunger around the world.

Every bottle they make is 100 per cent recyclable so they encourage you to rinse and dispose of it accordingly.

The Verdict: Best plant free milks

We were thoroughly won over by the delicious and unique, handmade nut m*lks we tried from the m*lkman.

However if you can’t get your hands on this, or want your milk to last a little longer, Rude Health have a really fab range of dairy free drinks which cover all basis.

Stacey Smith is the founder of food & drink website Crummbs

IndyBest product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testing.

According to modern scientists, most human adults aren't supposed to drink milk, because of the genome which produces lactase -- something about enzymes and being old and not being able to digest it and other buzzkills. That especially sucks, because ice cream is kind of the best.

Dairy Free Cheese Products

So let’s say you want some ice cream but can’t have dairy. You probably saw that Ben & Jerry’s recently released four new non-dairy flavors, but B&J’s isn’t the only non-dairy frozen dessert in town. Between the major national grocery chains, roughly 10 companies combine to sell a whopping 60 flavors. Unfortunately, most of the flavors taste like they came out the wrong end of a cow.

But not all of them. In the interest of helping our dairy-free friends, we’ve cracked open the best pints to fill you in on the non-dairy ice cream that still actually tastes like ice cream. With most of them, we couldn’t even tell that we weren’t eating the real thing.

Ben & Jerry’s P.B. & Cookies

Base: Almond
Certifications: Dairy-free, Fair Trade, vegan, kosher
Tasting notes: Cream, nuts, vanilla
“What?” you say. “One thousand one hundred and sixty calories in a pint of vegan ice cream? Surely this is some mistake?” But it’s not. This high-calorie, non-dairy frozen dessert comes from the same company that will sell you 20 scoops of ice cream, four bananas, hot fudge, and something like 74 toppings in a plastic bucket under a trademarked name (the Vermonster). We contend that there isn’t a better non-dairy flavor than P.B. & Cookies on the market. It contains everything fans love about Ben & Jerry’s (creamy flavor, rich toppings, ampersands) without any of the dairy. Serve this to us in a blind tasting and we’d never know it was dairy-free.

NadaMoo! Cookies & Crème

Base: Coconut
Certifications: Dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan, kosher
Tasting notes: Cream, vanilla, chocolate cookie
Our choice for second-best non-dairy frozen dessert on the market, NadaMoo! Cookies & Crème gives us hope for the future. For one day, when Earth gets visited by hostile aliens that demand intensely smooth, intensely creamy non-dairy ice cream with enough thick chunks of sweet chocolate cookie to satisfy their leader, known to the galaxy as the Cookie Connoisseur, we will present them with NadaMoo!, and they will be pleased. And there will be great rejoicing, and all manner of thing shall be well.

Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey

Base: Almond
Certifications: Dairy-free, Fair Trade, vegan, kosher
Tasting notes: Banana, cream, nuts
In the words of some junior wordsmith from Ben & Jerry’s marketing team, “The nuttiest chocolatey-chunkiest concoction-gone-bananas you’ll ever go ape for.” Yikes. Thankfully, this non-dairy version of the classic Ben & Jerry’s flavor is palatable enough that you’ll forgive the description. For people that love bananas and choose not to eat dairy, this is an absolute no-brainer.

Almond Dream Toffee Almond Fudge

Base: Almond
Certifications: Dairy-free, glutenfree, non-GMO, kosher
Tasting notes: Toffee, almond, chocolate
Lactose-intolerant British grandmothers everywhere, rejoice! Now you can get your daily ration of toffee in a delicious non-dairy frozen dessert. Is it weird that we picture British grandmothers eating toffee? Maybe. But can’t you see it? Their eyes alight, their hands pressed together at their chests, and they’re saying, “Oh Jonathan, thank you! You know how much I love toffee. Such a treat.” Whatever. This one is good.

Luna & Larry's Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge

Base: Coconut
Certifications: Dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, non-GMO, organic, vegan, kosher
Tasting notes: Coconut, chocolate, hazelnut
From the picture on the container, Luna and Larry might look like they came from a commune, but it was probably a commune that enjoyed some redankulous coconut-based ice cream. The Oregon couple 100% achieves the goal of creating a totally satisfying ice cream without the health and ecological impacts of dairy and soy. And with agave syrup extracted from something known as the Mexican Tree of Life and Abundance, how could they not? The final product is rich and creamy with a distinct coconut flavor and real bits of organic hazelnut in every bite.

So Delicious Turtle Trails

Base: Coconut
Certifications: Dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, non-GMO, vegan, kosher
Tasting notes: Vanilla, chocolate, salt
Gooey non-dairy caramel sauce. Chocolate-coated praline pecans. Real bits of sea turtle. For anyone who hates boring flavors, Turtle Trails is the way to go. The coconut-based vanilla ice cream goes great with the caramel sauce, and the chocolate praline pecans add some interesting crunch, not to mention a hint of salt (note: does not actually contain sea turtle).

So Delicious Peanut Butter Zig Zag

Base: Soy
Certifications: Dairy-free, gluten-free, non-GMO, vegan, kosher
Tasting notes: Soy, peanut butter, chocolate
You remember that Reese’s commercial from the ‘80s? Guy who looks like Fred from Scooby-Doo walks down the sidewalk holding an outsized chocolate bar. Girl who looks like Hermione from the Harry Potter movies walks the other way holding an open jar labeled “Peanut Butter.” They’re both listening to Walkmen. They collide. “Hey, you got peanut butter in my chocolate!” says Fred from Scooby-Doo. “You got chocolate in my peanut butter!” says Hermione. They look into each other's eyes, all wistful and dreamy, and each take a bite of peanut butter-covered chocolate. “Yum, delicious!” they say, at the same time. There is a lot of sexual tension. An old stranger who kinda looks like Mr. Rogers hands them each a packet of Reese’s. They’re stoked. They each take a bite and Hermione reaches for Fred’s crotch. Oh my gosh, you think. Are they about to get it on? But no -- she just turns up the Walkman clipped to his belt and they start dancing. You’re left feeling excited, breathless, and craving the perfect union of peanut butter and chocolate.

Staring at this soy-based non-dairy frozen dessert is a lot like watching that commercial.

Steve's Burnt Sugar Vanilla

Base: Coconut
Certifications: Dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, egg-free, non-GMO
Tasting notes: Cream, vanilla, caramel
Brooklyn-based Steve’s Ice Cream makes a variety of Brooklyn-sounding, dairy-rich flavors (Small Batch Bourbon Vanilla, Wildflower Honey Pistachio, Thai Peanut Butter Pretzel) but it also shows some love to the dairy-less -- again, with flavors that could only come from Brooklyn. We got our hands on Burnt Sugar Vanilla, which features rich, gooey veins of caramel-colored liquid sugar and tastes a lot like a mix between the caramel of a Twix and the vanilla ice cream inside an ice cream bar.

NadaMoo! Vanilla Cha-Cha-Chai

Base: Coconut
Certifications: Dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan, kosher
Tasting notes: Chai
Boom! It’s a chai-flavored, vanilla, non-dairy frozen dessert. Your move, ice cream.

Arctic Zero Vanilla Maple

Base: Water
Certifications: Dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free, fat-free, non-GMO, kosher
Tasting notes: Water, vanilla, maple
So you want a sweet dessert but don’t want a thousand-calorie-per-pint mega-treat. That’s why Arctic Zero created a water-based non-dairy frozen dessert with only 150 calories per pint. This one, Vanilla Maple, adds a hint of maple sweetness to a vanilla-flavored base. We’ll be honest -- it’s not our favorite, but if you’re watching your waistline, it’s the best in a sea of low-calorie options.

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Kenny Gould is a Pittsburgh-based writer and journalist currently on his sixth day of brain freeze. Follow him on Twitter at @kb_gould and on his website at KennyGould.com.