Milk and dairy products (milk powder, whey, cheese, cream etc.) 生乳・乳製品（発酵乳・脱脂粉乳・ホエイパウダー・チーズ・クリームなど）

How it appears on labels

Labeling rules

• “生乳” (raw milk): cow's milk as it is when milked (Article 2 of the Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products). In the Food Labeling Standards, raw milk is classified as a fresh food (“milk” among livestock products) (Appended Table 2).
• “乳製品” (dairy products): the Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products calls cream, butter, cheese, ice cream types, condensed milk, whole milk powder, skim milk powder, whey powder, modified milk powder, fermented milk, lactic acid bacteria beverages (those with 3.0% or more of non-fat milk solids), and milk beverages together “乳製品” (dairy products) (Article 2). When the ingredient name says only “乳製品”, you cannot tell from the label which of these is used.
• “バター” (butter): fat globules obtained from raw milk, cow's milk, and so on, worked and solidified. The standard is 80.0% or more milk fat and 17.0% or less water (Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products).
• Milk and dairy products must show a “種類別” (type category) that follows the definitions in the Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products (such as “発酵乳” (fermented milk) or “バター” (butter)) (Food Labeling Standards Appended Table 19).
• “発酵乳” (fermented milk): milk and so on fermented with lactic acid bacteria or yeast and made into a paste or liquid. The standard is 8.0% or more non-fat milk solids and 10 million or more lactic acid bacteria or yeast cells per ml (the cell count standard does not apply to those heat-sterilized after fermentation) (Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products).
• “脱脂粉乳” (skim milk powder): cow's milk and so on with the milk fat removed and almost all the water removed, made into powder (Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products).
• “ホエイパウダー” (whey powder): powder made by removing almost all the water from whey (“乳清”), which is produced when milk is fermented with lactic acid bacteria or when enzymes or acid are added. The standard is 95.0% or more milk solids (Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products).
• “たんぱく質濃縮ホエイパウダー” (whey protein concentrate powder): powder made from whey with the lactose removed. The standard is 15.0% to 80.0% milk protein in the dry state (Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products).
• “クリーム” (cream): raw milk, cow's milk, and so on with components other than milk fat removed. The standard is 18.0% or more milk fat (Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products).
• “チーズ” (cheese): the Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products calls “natural cheese” and “processed cheese” together “cheese”. Natural cheese is made by setting the protein of milk, cream, and so on with enzymes or similar agents and removing part of the whey (or ripening that product). Processed cheese is made by crushing natural cheese, heating it until it melts, and emulsifying it, and has 40.0% or more milk solids.
• The Food Labeling Standards say that the terms for milk, dairy products, and foods made mainly from them follow the Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products (Article 2, paragraph 3). However, the names “チーズパウダー” (cheese powder), “チーズ加工品” (processed cheese product), “バター加工品” (processed butter product), and “濃縮生クリーム” (concentrated fresh cream) are not terms defined in the Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products. You cannot tell from the label how they were processed, or what besides cheese, butter, or cream is in them.
• Milk is an allergen that must be labeled, and it is written like “（一部に乳成分を含む）” (contains some milk ingredients).

Good to know

• Infant formula (modified milk powder) is defined in the Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products as “milk powder with nutrients needed by infants added”, and the standard is 50.0% or more milk solids.
• The butter on this site (Yotsuba Fermented Butter for Bread) has “バター” (butter) as the type category and “生乳（北海道産）、食塩” (raw milk (from Hokkaido), salt) as the ingredient name. Raw milk is a fresh food, so the parentheses show the place of origin, not the place of manufacture (following the idea in Consumer Affairs Agency Q&A Raw Material Origin-51).
• The Greek yogurt on this site (Morinaga Parthenon) has “発酵乳” (fermented milk) as the type category, and its ingredient name is only “乳製品（国内製造）” (dairy products (made in Japan)). Dairy products are a processed food, so the parentheses show the place of manufacture.
• Among the products on this site, these are in curry roux (fermented milk), infant formula (skim milk powder, whey powder, lactose, and so on), yogurt (dairy products), and butter (raw milk).
• All three House Foods curry roux products use “チーズパウダー” (cheese powder). Java Curry and Kokumaro Curry also list “チーズ加工品” (processed cheese product), and Kokumaro Curry also lists “バター加工品” (processed butter product) and “濃縮生クリーム” (concentrated fresh cream).

Food composition data

Per 100 g of the edible portion. Source: MEXT, Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan (8th revised edition, 2023 supplement).

Products on this site that contain it

Product pages are in Japanese for now; each one reads every ingredient on the label.

Related pages

• Article: Dairy products and Japanese people
• Products on this site: Infant formula
• Products on this site: Yogurt
• Products on this site: Butter

Sources

• Ministerial Ordinance on Milk and Milk Products Concerning Compositional Standards, etc. — e-Gov Japanese Law Search
• Food Labeling Standards (Cabinet Office Ordinance No. 10 of 2015) — e-Gov Japanese Law Search
• Q&A on the Food Labeling Standards (revised March 28, 2025) — Consumer Affairs Agency
• Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan (8th revised edition, 2023 supplement) — MEXT

Sources are in Japanese unless noted otherwise. This page is a translation of our Japanese page; if they differ, the Japanese page is the reference.

Other ingredients in this group

• Galacto-oligosaccharides