Cool Whip is a brand of imitation whipped cream

Whipped cream

Whipped cream is cream that has been beaten by a mixer, whisk, or fork until it is light and fluffy. Whipped cream is often sweetened and sometimes flavored with vanilla, in which case it may be called Chantilly cream or crème Chantilly ....

 named a whipped topping

Whipped topping

Whipped topping is imitation whipped cream. Like other ersatz products, there are various reasons for using an imitation:* To exclude dairy ingredients to avoid milk allergies.* To support food taboos such as veganism or kosher meat and milk rules....

 by its manufacturer. It is used in North America as a dessert topping and in some no-bake pie recipes. It was generally described as "non-dairy" as it contained no cream

Cream

Cream is a dairy product that is composed of the higher-butterfat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, over time, the lighter fat rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream this process is accelerated by using centrifuges called "separators"...

 or milk

Milk

Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...

 and no lactose

Lactose

Lactose is a disaccharide sugar that is found most notably in milk and is formed from galactose and glucose. Lactose makes up around 2~8% of milk , although the amount varies among species and individuals. It is extracted from sweet or sour whey. The name comes from or , the Latin word for milk,...

; however, it did contain the milk derivative casein

Casein

Casein is the name for a family of related phosphoprotein proteins . These proteins are commonly found in mammalian milk, making up 80% of the proteins in cow milk and between 60% and 65% of the proteins in human milk....

. In 2010 both skimmed milk

Skimmed milk

Skimmed milk , or skim milk is made when all the cream is removed from whole milk .Sometimes only half the cream is removed, this is called semi-skimmed milk....

 and light cream were added to Original Cool Whip.
Cool Whip was introduced in 1967 by the Birds Eye

Birds Eye

__FORCETOC__Birds Eye is an international brand of frozen foods owned by Pinnacle Foods in North America and by private equity group Permira in Europe....

 division of General Foods

General Foods

General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the USA by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The name General Foods was adopted in 1929, after several corporate acquisitions...

.