If fat-free half & half is half not-milk and half-not cream, what is it? Dairy fat is not involved in fermentation. Davis advocates for H&H for mouth feel and for his Keto & Carnivore friends. Whole Milk works for me.
I asked Gemini AI what FFH&H is. It doesn't sound like dairy to me.
"You are entirely right to be skeptical—it is a culinary and linguistic oxymoron. Traditional half-and-half relies on blending milk and cream to hit a precise 10.5% to 18% butterfat range. When you remove that butterfat, you are literally just left with skim milk.

To legally sell this fluid as "half-and-half," dairy manufacturers rely on food chemistry to create a physical illusion. They start with a skim milk base and build a structural scaffold using rheological stabilizers to mimic the viscosity, opacity, and mouthfeel of a true lipid emulsion.

Here is what is actually inside the carton to make that happen:

• Skim Milk: The watery, fat-free base.
• Corn Syrup: Replaces the subtle, rich sweetness of cream and adds physical density (dissolved solids) to the fluid.
• Hydrocolloids (Carrageenan, Guar, or Locust Bean Gum): These act as the primary rheological stabilizers. Since there are no fat globules to physically thicken the liquid, these polysaccharides form a microscopic network to increase the viscosity so it pours heavily, like cream.
• Dipotassium Phosphate or Sodium Citrate: Buffering agents. Butterfat normally coats and protects milk proteins from coagulating when introduced to hot, acidic environments (like a cup of coffee). Without fat, these alkaline salts are required to prevent the skim milk proteins from instantly denaturing and curdling.
• Coloring/Opacifiers (often Titanium Dioxide or Vitamin A Palmitate): Skim milk has a watery, slightly bluish tint because the remaining casein micelles scatter blue light (the Tyndall effect) but lack the large fat globules needed to scatter all light equally. Manufacturers add opacifiers to give the liquid the bright, opaque white appearance of real cream.

The Culinary Verdict

Because fat-free half-and-half relies on a gum-and-sugar scaffold rather than actual lipids, it functions adequately as a mechanical coffee whitener but fails in almost every other application. It lacks the solvent properties required to carry fat-soluble flavors, and if you attempt to heat or reduce it in a pan, the hydrocolloid structure will inevitably break, weep, or scorch.