Vegan chocolate may not be so vegan

Josie

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It doesn't matter where you are or what the product is.. you just never know.

"The bottom line? Unfortunately, you can’t always tell if dark chocolate contains milk by reading the ingredients list. FDA researchers found that of 94 dark chocolate bars tested, only six listed milk as an ingredient. When testing the remaining 88 bars that did not list milk as an ingredient, FDA found that 51 of them actually did contain milk. In fact, the FDA study found milk in 61 percent of all bars tested."

Some of these bars said "may contain", some of them didn't. Some of them had trace amounts of dairy found in them.. some of them had just as much as a regular chocolate bar.

http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm433555.htm
 
Interesting fact on the one had, because this could be taken as an hecatomb for chocolate lovers, on the other hand I always thought that all forms of chocolate contain milk, as per some baking basics I had to learn.

Of course, not everybody knows this, as they don't know that white chocolate isn't chocolate at all either.
 
You might want to try out the brand "Plamill" that is produced in an all vegan factory.

There are certainly others, but this one comes to my mind.

Good to know about that particular brand - I would feel much more confident consuming their chocolate than others that may not be produced in the same sort of all vegan factory environment. I'll have to check and see if anywhere around here stocks it.

It's a little disappointing though that there are so many dark chocolates out there that do contain milk but just don't list it as an ingredient.
 
Interesting fact on the one had, because this could be taken as an hecatomb for chocolate lovers, on the other hand I always thought that all forms of chocolate contain milk, as per some baking basics I had to learn.

Of course, not everybody knows this, as they don't know that white chocolate isn't chocolate at all either.

Not all chocolate contains milk. Milk chocolate contains milk. Chocolate itself is just cacao solids and cacao butter. Also, baker's chocolate, which is what you would use as a baker, always comes in this form. It doesn't have milk or butter or even sugar in it. It tastes pretty awful, actually, and I love 90%+ dark chocolate.

If this article is talking about contamination, that's a different story, but the ingredients of actual, pure chocolate don't include milk.

It's also worth noting that white chocolate is made from cacao butter. That is, it includes the fat, but not the cacao solids you'd usually get in chocolate. It isn't chocolate chocolate, but it isn't an entirely different product either. It's a derivative.
 
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Not all chocolate contains milk. Milk chocolate contains milk. Chocolate itself is just cacao solids and cacao butter. Also, baker's chocolate, which is what you would use as a baker, always comes in this form. It doesn't have milk or butter or even sugar in it. It tastes pretty awful, actually, and I love 90%+ dark chocolate.

If this article is talking about contamination, that's a different story, but the ingredients of actual, pure chocolate don't include milk.

It's also worth noting that white chocolate is made from cacao butter. That is, it includes the fat, but not the cacao solids you'd usually get in chocolate. It isn't chocolate chocolate, but it isn't an entirely different product either. It's a derivative.

Yes, it's about contamination, but they're finding some to have quantities matching the usual milk based chocolates.. that's far more than an accident, but quite common with most foods. They're all leaving things off the labels and "oopsing" their way out of it.
 
I think most of this is contamination, as if it were an actual main ingredient , they would be breaking laws by not listing it. Unfortunately as a vegan, you can only do so much to ensure that you're not eating animal products, and if the company doesn't list it then its really not our fault :)
 
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Unfortunately, At process of going from the tree to the grocery store, a variety of additives are added, including sugar and milk or milkfat. In case you're searching for vegan chocolate, here are a couple of chocolate brands that are dairy free, without whey and casein-free. You can find these chocolates just about anyplace, including at your general supermarket.
  • Chocolate chips from Trader Joe's brand
  • Newman's Chocolate Bars
  • Ritter Sport
  • Fanny May's Dark chocolate
  • Chocolove Dark
I preferred mine from http://www.vorrei.co.uk/Vegan/, their vegan food products and hampers is interesting.