I've recently found out that i've developed lactose intolerance during college and I have finally brought myself to buy some lactase tablets. Anyway, they work great but I was wondering if they are functional not only at 37C but at 1-3C (ave fridge temp). I know they are probably engineered to be stable at low pH and at body temp, but what about in cold temps like the fridge?

 

I figured, I could prolly just crush and drop a lactase tablet into my milk carton and wont have to worry about lactose effects. Plus I would like to save money. Hah. Anyone ever tried to do that themselves?

It might work. It's also a question of pH in addition to temperature. Colder temperatures won't harm an enzyme, but they can drastically slow down its activity. However, if your pill is intended to get the lactase past your stomach and to your small intestine, then crushing the pill will probably ruin that. I suppose its an easy enough experiment to do though.

Thanks for the input Mr. Skeptic. What I meant to say was that I wanted the enzyme to work in the actual milk carton to break down the lactose in vitro (in carton) and produce my own homemade "Lactaid" like milk. Most likely the enzyme will be activated at a specific low pH since I cant really think about any enzymes that work in a broad pH range. I do research in a biochemistry lab so do you happen to know any easy method to test for glucose and galactose? I was thinking I can probably use a diabetic glucose meter to get hard data but then comes the issue if the meter will detect glucose in the presence of blood or not (I dont know how the meter works so maybe I can look it up).

Sure, drink it and see if you get gas. If you do, it didn't work and deactivated your tablet along the way. As a bonus, you also get to check what the effect of the tablet is on the milk's flavor, and for that matter whether it dissolves at all.

Lol...I guess I'll be checking for fart inducing, sweet tasting milk then. Will report qualitative findings soon.

Any results to report back? I had the exact same thoughts and was thinking about how this may or may not work.