How Milkapedia Evaluates Milk Evidence
Milk data are easy to misread. A raw seed is not the same thing as the drink made from it, a food standard is not a nutrition database, and one study does not make a universal value. This is the method Milkapedia uses to keep those categories separate.
1. Match the source to the exact product
A citation must describe the food or process named on the page. A record for salted butter cannot be presented as unsalted butter; a record for dried buttermilk cannot stand in for liquid kefir. When the closest evidence is only about the raw ingredient, Milkapedia labels that limitation instead of treating it as beverage data.
2. Separate four kinds of evidence
Finished-product composition supports nutrition or composition of the drink or dairy product itself. Ingredient composition describes the nut, seed, grain, legume, tuber, or raw milk before processing. Standards and regulations define product identity or minimum composition. Cultural and process sources support how a milk is made, used, or understood in a region. These sources answer different questions and are not interchangeable.
3. Prefer primary and authoritative sources
Milkapedia prioritizes peer-reviewed research, USDA FoodData Central, FAO/WHO Codex standards, government regulations, and institutional publications. Search pages and homepages are not treated as proof of a specific nutrient or historical claim.
4. Preserve uncertainty
Animal milk changes with breed, feed, season, and lactation stage. Fermented milk changes with starter culture and process. Plant beverages change with dilution, straining, fortification, and brand formulation. Where a reliable universal number does not exist, Milkapedia uses a range, describes the source basis, or says that the value varies.
5. Check the destination, not just the citation label
A source title can look correct while its link points somewhere else. Milkapedia's September 2026 source review checked the displayed destinations as well as their labels and prompted a site-wide repair of mismatched and retired links.
6. What a Milkapedia comparison means
Comparisons are normalized only when the underlying evidence is comparable. A cup of fortified commercial almond milk should not be compared directly with 100 grams of almonds as if both measurements describe the same food. The goal is not to force every milk into one number; it is to make the evidence basis visible.