Is hard cheese high in lactose?
No, and here is why
Munchable tiers hard cheese as only a trace of lactose, so Munchable does not flag it for lactose intolerance in ordinary amounts.
What it is called on a label
Hard cheese is also printed as aged cheese. Munchable recognises all of these as the same ingredient, which is the point of scanning rather than reading: the wording changes between brands and the rule does not.
What Munchable checks for Lactose intolerance
- High load: milk, cream, ice cream, condensed and evaporated milk, milk powder, added lactose
- Moderate: whey, ricotta, cottage cheese, cream cheese, mozzarella and other soft cheeses
- Trace: hard and aged cheeses, butter
- Where the dairy ingredient sits on the label, as a proxy for how much is in there
- Your sensitivity setting, which shifts every threshold
The full reasoning, and the evidence behind it, is in the Lactose intolerance guide.
Other ingredients Munchable flags for Lactose intolerance
The catch with reading labels yourself
Knowing that hard cheese is a problem is the easy part. Finding it is the hard part: it hides behind wordings that do not look like it, it matters more near the top of the list than the bottom, and a product you have bought for years quietly reformulates. That is the job Munchable does in the aisle, in about a second, from the barcode.
Check it in the shop, not at home
Point your phone at the barcode and Munchable reads the ingredients list for you, before it goes in the basket.