Holly, I hope that this helps you.  This is partially the information that I
give to people who work w/my children.  Eileen in MI

Casein-Free Information (Dairy-Free Information)

 

Eliminating casein (ie. cow's milk and it's derivatives) from your diet
isn't that difficult, once you know how to read the labels on foods.

 

One way to make life easier is to look for kosher labeling on products.
There are many kosher certification labels.  What does it mean when an item
has kosher labeling?  It means that the food manufacturing process was
overseen by a rabbi, who theoretically ensures that it meets Hebrew dietary
laws. The food also may not contain both dairy products and meat, but it may
contain one or the other. "P" or "Parve" means the product contains no meat
or dairy products but may contain fish or eggs. "D," as in "Kosher D," means
that the product either contains milk protein or was made with dairy
machinery.  The same holds true for items labeled with "DE".  To completely
avoid any product that either contains dairy or has the possibility of
cross-contamination by being processed on lines that also run dairy
products, the best thing to do is to look for kosher labeling that says
"Parve" or "Pareve".

 

The words "non-dairy" on a product label indicates that it does not contain
butter, cream, or milk. However, this does not necessarily indicate it does
not have other milk-containing ingredients.   Processed meats, including hot
dogs, sausages, and luncheon meats, frequently contain milk or are processed
on milk-containing lines. Carefully read all food labels.There are
individual ingredients that you can look out for in ingredient labels,
kosher labeling or not.  These ingredients to avoid include:  

*	cheese
*	butter, butter fat
*	casein
*	lactose
*	milk solids
*	artificial butter flavor
*	non-dairy substitutes containing caseinate.  
*	Be careful with things that contain lecithin as there are different
ways for lecithin to be cultured.  Some lecithin is cultured through dairy
and some are cultured through vegetables or grains (beets or soy, usually).

*	caseinates (ammonium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium)
*	cheese, cottage cheese, curds
*	cream
*	custard, pudding
*	ghee
*	Half and HalfT
*	hydrolysates (casein, milk protein, protein, whey, whey protein)
*	lactalbumin, lactalbumin phosphate
*	lactoglobulin
*	milk (derivative, protein, solids, malted, condensed, evaporated,
dry, whole, lowfat, nonfat, skim)
*	nougat
*	rennet casein
*	sour cream
*	sour cream solids
*	whey (delactosed, deminderalixed, protein concentrate)
*	yogurt 
*	Be careful with things that contain lecithin as there are different
ways for lecithin to be cultured.  Some lecithin is cultured through dairy
and some are cultured through vegetables or grains (beets or soy, usually).


Other possible sources of milk or milk products:

*	brown sugar flavoring 
*	caramel flavoring 
*	chocolate 
*	high protein flour 
*	margarine 
*	"natural" flavoring 
*	SimplesseT 

Don't hesitate to call the company's toll-free number to find out if an item
contains casein (say milk/milk products, otherwise you'll have the customer
rep lost within a minute).  Be sure to say that you have a severe allergy to
all milk/milk products so that they will be thorough in their search of
information about where and how the product was processed.