Rachel, regrettably there is nothing new about "milk biscuits", made with bovine milk, as an export product.  A lifetime ago New Zealand was exporting them to a target market in S-E Asia, an area where capacity to process lactose declines after infancy and early childhood.  It is one of a number of ways dairy industries deal with surplus product.  (Another way was the use of "school milk schemes" in the UK, Australia, and other countries, on which I've done some unpublished research.)

You are right to point out that many of the world's adults - and children after early childhood - no longer produce enough of the enzyme, lactase, to utilise lactose.  In fact, one opinion is that "lactose intolerance" is normal after early childhood, *except* for people decended from northern European ancestors, who can cope with lactose into adulthood - and who are a minority of the world's population.  Conversely, this reasoning would suggest that ability to digest lactose is abnormal, though possibly beneficial.

Virginia
in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Sun, 12 Oct 2008, Rachel O'Leary wrote;
Subject: website re IFE?
....  I have heard of powdered infant formula being made into biscuits with  
flour for adults to eat but not all adults in the world are able to  
digest lactose anyway, so it might still cause more harm than good. It  
would be great to get the message across - don't send that stuff!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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