Whey
WheyWhey is the liquid left when milk is curdled and the curd removed. Once a disposal problem for cheesemakers, it is now a valuable ingredient in its own right.
Where it is and isn’t permitted
| Jurisdiction | Status | Scope and limits | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Permitted | 21 CFR 184.1979retrieved 2026-09-07 | |
| Codex Alimentarius | Not listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited. |
What it is made from
A by-product of cheese and casein manufacture, then dried or concentrated. Whey from rennet-set cheese carries whatever rennet was used, which is a separate question from the whey itself.
- Not vegan
- Vegetarian
- May raise a kosher question
Every name it appears under
1 recorded name. A label may use any of them.
As it appears in regulation
- Whey
Hazard reference values
No reference value for this substance in the sources we hold.
Evidence and how bodies read it
Studies, and the differing conclusions regulators drew from them, are curated by hand rather than machine-read, and none has been written for this substance yet.
Sources for this page
- ecfr retrieved 2026-09-07
Full licence terms and publisher details on Sources. How this page is built and updated: Method.
Machine-readable:/api/v1/additives/whey.json