Sure you’re lactose intolerant?

New research launched in Beijing yesterday indicates that the self-diagnosis of a large proportion of populations in Asia, and of 22 per cent of Australians, that they are lactose intolerant, could be mistaken.

It is being heralded as a crucial breakthrough that could open the door to far bigger markets for ASX-listed and Auckland-based The a2 Milk Company, which sponsored the research, published in Britain’s Nutrition Journal.

The clinical research led by Sun Jianqin, a professor at Shanghai’s Huadong Hospital — which is affiliated with Fudan, one of China’s top three universities — found that the A1 protein type in conventional cow’s milk slows the transition through the gut, taking a prolonged time to digest, potentially triggering discomforting symptoms.

But in double-blind testing over eight weeks the 45 Shanghai people who participated in the trial, and who previously self-reported milk intolerance, found that milk containing A2 protein types — patented by the company — was satisfactorily digested.

David Hearn, the UK veteran of food companies who chairs a2, told The Australianthat “all we have been allowed to do, and all we have ever wanted to do”, was to sponsor the research to check out lactose intolerance, and that the outcome came as a considerable surprise.

“The study is powerful because it deals with physiological effects, not feelings.”

He said the research had been peer-reviewed, and that Associate Professor Xia Lu, the director of the endoscopic centre at Shanghai Jiaotong University’s medical school, who is also an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University’s medical school in the US, had also participated in the trial.

Professor Xia said: “These are breakthrough findings for those who believe they suffer from lactose intolerance. Gut inflammation caused by the A1 type protein can be avoided by consuming milk products with only the A2 type protein.”

Mr Hearn, who is among 40 business delegates accompanying New Zealand Prime Minister John Key on a visit to China this week, said the research was significant because about 90 per cent of the population of many Asian countries resist drinking more milk products because they believe they are lactose intolerant.

“From the business perspective this market is huge. These people don’t have the medical condition they thought they had. Lactose intolerance is thus a symptom, not a cause.”

The a2 Company was listed on NZ’s second board in 2004, and joined the main board in 2012. It listed a year ago on the ASX, and now 60 per cent of the shareholders are Australian.

The firm, with a market cap of $1.2bn, has been one of the fastest growing stocks on the exchange this year.

Mr Hearn said: “China has become an extremely important market for us, and will continue to grow.”

He said if a2 was demonstrated to be more easily digested by delicate stomachs, the logic proposition for infant formula was especially powerful.

Two years ago, 90 per cent of the company’s business was in Australia. Now 15 per cent is sold in China directly by the firm.

But London-based Mr Hearn believed that about 40 per cent of the product ultimately reaches the Chinese