🥛 Llama milk

Llama milk is the milk of the llama, a domestic animal of the Andes belonging to the camel family. The llama is a domestic animal of the Andes, a South American relative of camels. It is raised for wool and meat and used as a pack animal; according to the FAO, llamas have historically not been bred for milk, and there is little information on the composition and consumption of their milk.

Judging by the available data, llama milk is sweet: it is high in lactose (about 6%), has about 2.7–4.7% fat and more protein than cow’s milk. As in camels, no measurable amount of β-lactoglobulin has been found in llama milk. Its fatty acid profile, according to the only study available to the FAO, is comparable to that of cow’s milk.

Llama milk or cow's milk? Llama milk is sweet, with about 6% lactose, and has more protein than cow's milk; its fat, about 2.7–4.7%, and its fatty acid profile are comparable. Llama milk or camel milk? Like camel milk, it shows no measurable β-lactoglobulin, one of the main allergens in cow's milk. The difference in practice is availability: cow's milk is everywhere, while llamas are hardly ever milked, and the FAO calls llama and alpaca milk an underused food resource in mountain regions.

Do not look for llama milk on a shelf: llamas are raised in the Andes for wool and meat and as pack animals, and in practice they are hardly ever milked. If a product is sold under this name, check the ingredients list for what it really contains. Ordinary drinking milk, whole or semi-skimmed, pasteurised or UHT, is cow's milk and carries the usual labels at supermarkets and dairies.

The FAO calls llama and alpaca milk an underused food resource for people in the mountain regions of South America. In practice llamas are hardly ever milked: the young get all the milk, and the female has a small udder and low yields. Like other camelids, the llama has a three-chambered stomach and digests coarse fodder much like a ruminant.