Originally Posted by
iwillflytheworld
It is a matter of semantics but given that any kind of milk you can get at the supermarket is quite processed from what one gets out of the cow, I don't see lactose-free milk as less of "real milk" than milk without the lactose removing process.
While according to the numbers Finland doesn't seem to have an especially high number of lactose intolerant people, for some reason availability of lactose-free options seems to be historically much more prevalent in Finland than other places.
I think it has to do with the history of promoting milk products & the associated supposed health benefits in the country - I believe milk consumption in Finland per capita is still top-5 in the world. Removing lactose from milk was a Finnish innovation (or at least was claimed to be) and Valio (local dairy company) has exported both the lactose-free products and the tech to remove lactose from milk for over 20 years. Today, the demand for lactose-free products in Finland has far surpassed the proportion of lactose-intolerant people in the population and it's become so common that for most events etc. it's just easier to use the lactose-free products as most people don't notice the difference in taste anyways. I can see from Finnair's perspective how this is an easy way to cut an extra product from the list and just offer the lactose-free option without most people even ever noticing.