Lunch
Quinoa and Feta Tabbouleh
20 minEasy
Cheese (Feta)
Dairy · Cheese
TLDRLast updated 3 September 2026
Feta is one of the few dairy foods where the tested portion is more generous than the one you would actually build: half a cup crumbled, 60 g, records 0.15 g of lactose and rates green. A salad for one rarely carries that much. Brine curing rather than long ageing is what holds the figure down.
Last updated 3 September 2026Serving sizes for cheese (feta)
The tested serve is 60 g, half a cup crumbled, rated green.
0.5 cupsabout 60 g
Tested serving sizes
| Serving | Amount | Main FODMAP | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1/2 cup crumbled | 60 g | Lactose 0.15 g |
Breakdown for 0.5 cups
0gFructose
0.1gLactose
0gFructans
0gGOS
0gSorbitol
0gMannitol
0.5 cupsabout 60 g
Is cheese (feta) low FODMAP?
Feta is drained, salted and then left to cure in brine, and lactose, being water-soluble, migrates out into that salty liquid over weeks rather than being eaten by cultures over months. The tested half cup lands at 0.15 g, comfortably under the 0.5 g line where lactose begins to register against a portion. That is higher than a hard cheese such as parmesan, which reads 0.01 g at a quarter cup, but the serve you are given here is half as big again and still green. Lactose is the only group present at all.
Cheese (Feta) and IBS: what to know
Because feta is aggressively salty it tends to portion itself: people crumble it rather than slice it, and a lunch salad usually takes a fraction of the amount tested. That leaves headroom, which is rare in dairy. The risk on the plate is the company it keeps, since a classic Greek salad is built on raw onion and it is our no-onion version that is rated green. Marinated feta deserves a label check too: garlic is a common addition to the oil, and garlic solids carry fructans into whatever they sit in.
Gut-friendly ways to eat cheese (feta)
Feta does two jobs at once, salting a dish and lending it a creamy edge, which means it can stand in where a recipe would otherwise call for a stock cube or a fistful of grated hard cheese. Crumble it cold over roasted zucchini and tomato, whip it with lemon and olive oil into a dip for rice crackers, or bake it whole with cherry tomatoes and fold the lot through pasta. Rinsing off the brine and patting the block dry makes it noticeably less salty without altering any of the FODMAP figures.
Recipes with cheese (feta)
Frequently asked questions
Is feta lower in lactose than mozzarella?
On paper the two record the same figure, but the serves differ: feta is measured at half a cup crumbled and mozzarella at a third of a cup shredded. Gram for gram, then, feta is the lower of the pair, and the practical difference is simply that you get more feta on the plate before the number starts to move.
How much feta can I have in one meal?
Half a cup crumbled is the tested amount and it rates green, which is more than a single salad normally calls for. Nothing larger has been measured, so a whole block eaten in one sitting sits outside what the data describes. In practice salt tends to stop you well before milk sugar becomes the question.
Can I eat baked feta pasta on a low FODMAP diet?
The cheese is not the obstacle; the recipe usually is. Baked feta pasta works when you build it on cherry tomatoes, oil and herbs and leave out the garlic cloves most versions roast alongside the block. Keep the wheat pasta inside its own tested serve or use a gluten-free shape, and loosen the sauce with a spoonful of the cooking water instead.
Is feta OK during the FODMAP elimination phase?
Yes, at the crumbled half cup that has been tested, which rates green. Feta earns its place in that phase precisely because it delivers a strong savoury hit at a point when onion and garlic are gone and food starts tasting flat. Watch what surrounds it rather than the cheese: the bread, the dressing and the salad onion are where those meals usually come undone.
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