Chocolate

[Alexia]

Making sure your chocolate bar is vegetarian is really important. Thankfully in the UK many companies are aware of this and the green v sign is usually indicated or 'suitable for vegetarians' is written, though some chocolate bars still aren't vegetarian and you have to check the ingredients list. Curly Wurly wasn't vegetarian, but Cadbury's changed the ingredients so it was.

I had to double check the easter eggs I was given, although one was an organic chocolate one from Green & Black's and all their products are suitable for vegetarians.

 

[galmal]

I'm a newbie here, so bare with me.

Chocolate isn't vegetarian - yikes!! I hadn't considered that. Is it the milk in it that would "disqualify" it? Is it only milk chocolate - would dark chocolate be OK? I'm really limiting my chocolate intake, but every once in while I just have to have a few bites. We live in a very small town (in the US) so I'm not sure that we have the choices that you've described.

 

[lion]

I'm a newbie here, so bare with me.

Chocolate isn't vegetarian - yikes!! I hadn't considered that. Is it the milk in it that would "disqualify" it? Is it only milk chocolate - would dark chocolate be OK? I'm really limiting my chocolate intake, but every once in while I just have to have a few bites. We live in a very small town (in the US) so I'm not sure that we have the choices that you've described.

Most chocolate is vegetarian, just not vegan. Vegetarians can consume milk. However a lot of chocolate bars have hidden ingredients, like whey powder (this can be vegetarian, but like there are non vegetarian cheeses that use rennet, there is whey that does this too) or gelatin (made from things like skin, bones, hooves) so that makes them obviously not vegetarian.

A lot of dark chocolate still has milk in it, but not all. You should check the ingredients.

If there isn't vegan/vegetarian chocolate in shops near you, there's nothing stopping you ordering online.

 

[mothwings]

In India there's a little green square with a circle in it to certify the food as pure vegetarian. I still haven't found a chocolate bar with it though... :/

 

[Andy_T]

Chocolate is actually one of the foodstuffs where it is not particularly difficult to find vegan versions, if you go for good quality (and hence expensive) chocolates. Those you would typically not find in supermarkets, but rather in whole food markets or upscale shops.

Apart from "milk chocolate", why do manufacturers use ingredients like butterfat instead of cocoa butter on dark chocolate? The answer is simple ... cost.

Read the ingredients, then you should be able to choose a good vegan dark chocolate.

 

[Josie]

Be careful guys! Just this weekend I read that the FDA tested a bunch of dairy free chocolate bar brands and still found dairy in many them, from small traces to just as much as a regular dairy filled chocolate bar. So even those with all the fancy (bought and paid for) labels and certifications are lying. Many will say "may contain" and I've always considered them to say "DOES contain", but even the ones who don't say it are a risk now.

 

[Andy_T]

Indeed, a good option is to go for the British brand Plamill, who proudly declare that all their products are produced in a factory that is completely free of any dairy or nuts.

 

[Connie]

I'm a newbie here, so bare with me.

Chocolate isn't vegetarian - yikes!! I hadn't considered that. Is it the milk in it that would "disqualify" it? Is it only milk chocolate - would dark chocolate be OK? I'm really limiting my chocolate intake, but every once in while I just have to have a few bites. We live in a very small town (in the US) so I'm not sure that we have the choices that you've described.

I'm not sure that the OP was referring to straight chocolate bars because she stated Curly Wurly which is a caramel covered in milk chocolate and I suspect it was the caramel that was the non-vegetarian part rather than the actual chocolate part, rather like Rich Tea biscuits used to be made with animal fat instead of 'vegetable' fat and Polo's (a mint) used to contain gelatin.

The situation is much better than it used to be and if you can't see the vegetarian society logo (and this posting is under the vegetarian not vegan forums) and you can't work out what in the ingredients isn't vegetarian, the probability is that there is something you don't know and it isn't vegetarian (in the UK - laws are different in the US).

 

[CrowdedHighways]

This thread reminds me of a traumatic experience in my past haha. Where I live, they sell these nutrition bars that look(and taste) like they are made from chocolate/iris, but are really made from bull blood. I have anemia, so when I was younger, my mom used to give them to me and tell me that they were just plain chocolate bars. I did not find out until I was about 10 years old.

 

[turtledove]

I never thought about chocolate not being suitable for vegetarians, only vegans. I do live in the UK, so they do have the green 'v' on anything that's suitable for vegetarians. I'm guessing that sometimes a few non-vegetarian ingredients are added to enhance the taste of the chocolate.

 

[JessieJJ]

My friend is a vegetarian and she considers chocolate to be in the vegetarian foods category. She eats it almost everyday.