Nutritive milk, classified as a form of milk product, was consumed by individuals within the Galactic Empire and various rebel partisan factions during the Imperial Era. While the human Jyn Erso perceived its flavor as uninteresting and its ability to satisfy hunger as inferior to that of solid food, nutritive milk served as an affordable and adequately filling sustenance option for survival.

Saw Gerrera, a human, along with his rebel group, the Partisans, stored nutritive milk containers within the bulkheads of their ships and at their outpost on the planet Wrea throughout the Imperial Era. In 13 BBY, after Gerrera assumed responsibility for raising Erso as a young girl at the base, he supplied her with cans of nutritive milk, which he also favored for others residing at the base, citing his preference for avoiding the complexities of solid food items. Some Partisans, including the Twi'lek Xosad Hozem, declined the milk, opting to purchase alternative food sources instead. When Erso resided on the Five Points space station circa 4 BBY, she conserved her credits by subsisting on nutritive milk and vegetable protein straws, both of which were economical food choices.
During 0 ABY, Seyn Marana, an Imperial agent belonging to Inferno Squad, infiltrated the partisan rebel group known as the Dreamers through an undercover operation. The Twi'lek Dreamer Dahna offered her nutritive milk and a meiloorun fruit while aboard their vessel. The Dreamers also maintained a supply of nutritive milk at their encampment on the planet Jeosyn, with the human rebel Lux Bonteri keeping some near his sleeping quarters. In the same year, Thane Kyrell, an Imperial lieutenant, consumed nutritive milk from a canteen that had been acquired from a village during the Imperial search for a rebel base on the planet Dantooine. During 3 ABY, Berisse Sai, an Imperial officer, ingested nutritive milk within the cafeteria of the Executor, a Super Star Destroyer.
The initial appearance of nutritive milk occurred in the 2015 novel titled Lost Stars, authored by Claudia Gray.