Dairy products are generally defined as foodstuffs produced from milk. They are usually high-energy-yielding food products. A production plant for such processing is called a dairy or a dairy factory. Raw milk for processing generally comes from cows, but occasionally from other mammals such as goats, sheep, water buffalo, yaks, or horses. Dairy products are commonly found in European, Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine, whereas they are almost unknown in East Asian cuisine.

Dairy may cause health issues for individuals with lactose intolerance and milk allergies. Vegans and some vegetarians avoid dairy products due to a variety of ethical, dietary, environmental, political, and religious concerns.

Type of dairy products

*Milk, after optional homogenization, pasteurization, in several grades of bacteria Streptococcus lactis and Leuconostoc citrovorum

• Crème fraîche, slightly fermented cream
• Smetana, Central and Eastern European variety of sour cream
• Clotted cream, thick spoonable cream made by heating
• Cultured buttermilk, fermented concentrated (water removed) milk using the same bacteria as sour cream
• Kefir, fermented milk drink resembling buttermilk but based on different yeast and bacteria culture
• Milk powder (or powdered milk), produced by removing the water from milk
• Whole milk & buttermilk
• Skim milk
• Cream
• High milk-fat & nutritional powders (for infant formulas)
• Cultured and confectionery powders
• Condensed milk, milk which has been concentrated by evaporation, often with sugar added for longer life in an opened can
• Evaporated milk, (less concentrated than condensed) milk without added sugar
• Ricotta cheese, milk heated and reduced in volume, known in Indian cuisine as Khoa
• Infant formula, dried milk powder with specific additives for feeding human infants
• Baked milk, a variety of boiled milk that has been particularly popular in Russia

• Butter, mostly milk fat, produced by churning cream
• Buttermilk, the liquid left over after producing butter from cream, often dried as livestock food
• Ghee, clarified butter, by gentle heating of butter and removal of the solid matter
• Anhydrous milkfat

• Cheese, produced by coagulating milk, separating from whey and letting it ripen, generally with bacteria and sometimes also with certain molds
• Curds, the soft curdled part of milk (or skim milk) used to make cheese (or casein)
• Whey, the liquid drained from curds and used for further processing or as a livestock food
• Cottage cheese
• Quark
• Cream cheese, produced by the addition of cream to milk and then curdled to form a rich curd or cheese made from skim milk with cream added to the curd
• Fromage frais