🥛 Alpaca milk

Alpaca milk is the milk of the alpaca, a small domestic animal of the Andes belonging to the camel family. The alpaca is a small domestic animal of the camel family, raised in the Andes for its soft fleece. Like the llama, it was historically not kept for milk, so very little is known about its milk.

According to the FAO, alpaca milk is richer in protein and minerals than the milk of other camelids and cow’s milk: it has about 5–6% protein with fairly moderate fat (about 2.6–3.8%). As of 2013, the FAO reported, there had been no studies of the fatty acid profile of alpaca milk.

Only the young drink alpaca milk; it is occasionally collected for research or for hand-rearing. Interest in it is mostly scientific: comparing the milk of alpacas, llamas, dromedaries and Bactrian camels helps show how milk composition relates to lifestyle and climate. For people in the Andean highlands, the FAO says, llama and alpaca milk remains an underused food resource, but there is no practical production of it yet.