The Mystery of LactoFree

If you live in Dubai and use LactoFree milk by Almarai, you might have noticed it hasn't been available in the supermarkets for some weeks.  

So what's the mystery? 

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What's  lactofree

What's LactoFree? It's only the BEST milk ever.  Really! 
Okay, I'm getting too excited, so let me talk about the facts. If you are lactose intolerant, you have usually other options like soy milk (yuck), almond, rice, oat milks etc. LactoFree by Almarai instead is cow's milk that has been filtered to take out the lactose so you can still get the rest of the nutrients like calcium, vitamins etc. In addition they have added Vitamin D.
The nutrition facts on a 1lt pack of LactoFree are:

Nutritional information (per 100ml serving)
Energy 58 Kcal/240kJ 
Fat 3.0g 
Protein 3.0g 
Carbohydrate 4.7g 
Calcium 100mg 
Vitamin D3 400 I.U./litre

Why  Do   I   like   LactoFREE

I'm not extremely lactose intolerant but if I can avoid lactose better, however what made me fall in love with this milk. it's the flavor. It's so tasty and creamy that since started using LactoFree, I have stopped using sugar in my coffee or tea.  

Here's a funny anedocte

LACTOFREE -GOES- MISSING 

A few weeks ago, LactoFree went missing. 

A friend came to visit from London a few months ago. He is Italian.  Italians drink a lot of milk, whether is hot or cold, and whether is for breakfast, as part of afternoon "merenda" (snack)  or in the evening before bed. So, on the first night that my guest was at my house, we were chatting in the kitchen, and he asked if he could get a glass of milk from the fridge.

Image by deviantart.com - darthraner83.

I nodded as we continued chatting, he casually poured a glassful of milk and started drinking. His eyes popped out and he froze.  I stopped mid phrase thinking perhaps he was chocking as he was staring at me like a frozen statue. 



"Are you okay?"  I asked.  After a few seconds he recomposed himself and said: "How good is this milk? It's amazing!!" 
I laughed, agreeing of course. He went on and drunk a second glass. At the end of the stay I gave him a few cartons to take home to London as he totally fell in love with it. And I bet if someone asked him what he remembered most of his vacation in Dubai mostly likely he wouldn't have mentioned Burj Khalifa, or Burj Al Arab,  Ski Dubai, or The Dubai Mall, no, he would have probably said: the milk!!

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I have been inquiring what happened at the supermarket for the past few weeks, but got no where, because as usual in Dubai it's the like the 3 evil monkeys. No one sees, hear or speak, basically no one knows anything! 
After asking again today, the supermarket supervisor told me that "Almarai stopped the product and they were looking to source a new product or brand".  This turned out to be a big pile of you-know-what.  Another problem of Dubai' sales assistants, supervisors, and managers in shops, when they don't know something:

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They make it up, so to get you off their case.

I thought to myself that can't be right. They just released a new packaging a few months ago. If you know the amount of time and work that goes into design a new packaging, as I do,  you know a brand wouldn't put the effort if they were going to discontinue a product.  
It didn't make sense, and because I don't get off a case so easily ( especially not when this is the only acceptable product of its kind available, there's another one but taste awful and costs 4X more), I went home and decided to contact Almarai to solve the mystery. 

Pass -me -the -pen

In my family there's a saying called "Pass me the pen", which I lovingly credit to my mother in law, who like me is one of those people who do not get pushed around and will get to the bottom of a matter. So, when you hear her saying "Pass me the pen" it means she is getting ready to tackle whatever or whomever she's dealing with by taking names, writing complaints etc. So...I did a "pass me the pen" and I wrote, actually I tweeted (you can verify it here)  and here's the answer I received from Almarai:

First of all,  thank you Almarai for making my day! Secondly, I'm glad the mystery is solved and soon we'll go back to enjoy LactoFree.

Due to high demand....

Despite the fact that I have been missing it, I am happy to hear that there are many people equally loving LactoFree, and this product definitely gets a "Doozy Stamp", you can bet when it returns to the shelves I will be stocking up, so not to go without it again! 

Whether you are lactose intolerant or not,  if you live in the Gulf region, you should try LactoFree by Almarai and rediscover the joy of drinking milk!