Green and Blacks - milk ingredients??

Parnassia

I've recently noticed Green and Blacks have included milk powder in previously vegan chocolates, such as Maya Gold (used to be a favourite), peppermint and even the plain dark chocolate.

What a pain! These were readily available, and also available in small bars (good for portion control!)

I've emailed them to point out my distress, just wanted to post this as a heads up for any unsuspecting vegans, and a bit of a rant.

Ah well, I've found 'Divine' chocolate to be just as good, it's a pity it's not as widely available.

-lala-

Parnassia wrote: »

I've recently noticed Green and Blacks have included milk powder in previously vegan chocolates, such as Maya Gold (used to be a favourite), peppermint and even the plain dark chocolate.

What a pain! These were readily available, and also available in small bars (good for portion control!)

I've emailed them to point out my distress, just wanted to post this as a heads up for any unsuspecting vegans, and a bit of a rant.

Ah well, I've found 'Divine' chocolate to be just as good, it's a pity it's not as widely available.

Yep, noticed this too, silly green and blacks people :mad:

Although tbh I think Divine chocolate is an awful lot nicer than G&B - I agree with you that it's not very widely available though, the only places I've found it are Spar on Baggot Street and the Oxfam shop on South King Street. Have you managed to find it anywhere else?

The Oxfam shop also have Blake's chocolate, which is amaaaaaazing - they have one with almonds in it that's vegan, I think there's another vegan one too but the almond one is just so so so amazing.

Parnassia

I found the Divine stuff in Dunnes in the Stephens Green centre. I'll have to check out Blakes in Oxfam, cheers! I don't buy chocolate very often, but it's good to know where to get some good stuff.

Aoifums

I was told by another vegan that they had to put milk powder in the ingrediants list for allergy reasons. I don't know if that was true though. I also heard that they were taken over by Cadburys, which put me right off them.

flikflak

Yep, this was discussed on other vegan forums a few months ago.

They have not changed the recipe but as there were more than "acceptable" traces of organic milk powder on their machines then they felt they had to include them on the ingredients.

So if you ate it then knowing that there could have been traces of milk powder then it should not stop you eating it now as nothing in the recipe has actually changed.

That is if you believe them or not.........;)

-lala-

flikflak wrote: »

They have not changed the recipe but as there were more than "acceptable" traces of organic milk powder on their machines then they felt they had to include them on the ingredients.

It's a bit scary that there can be more than "acceptable" traces of organic milk powder on their machines without consumers knowing - especially as the maya gold one didn't say that it could contain traces of milk products before.

Tar.Aldarion

They removed the vegan labelling half a year ago as they are made on a line that has dairy.

This is from a previous post about this:

Ok, i'll go through some of the chocolate packaging i have:

Divine 70% Dark Chocolate:"May contain traces of nuts, milk and gluten"

Ecuador Premium Cocoa 70% (Lidl i think): "May contain traces of hazelnuts, almonds and milk solids"

Wilde Irish Organic Chocolate 70% Cocoa: "Allergen Information: May contain traces of milk protein and nuts"

Lindt 70% cocoa (French pack): "Puet contenir des traces de lécithine de soja, des noisettes, d'amandes et de lait" (lait = milk)

Green and Black's Organic Dark Chocolate (I seem to have the new packaging here - no vegan symbol): "Manufactured in a factory that handles nut, cereal and dairy ingrediants. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans". Funny that they take away the vegan symbol, yet still call it vegan.

Celtic Dairy free Fine Dark Chocolate has no such warning. "Celtic Free From Fine Dark Chocolate is suitable for Coeliacs, Vegans, Vegetarians, and those on a Dairy, Egg or Wheat Free Diet"

Celtic chocolate seem to be the only company that guarantee no dairy contamination in their lines/products if you are that hardcore.

-lala-

Hmm, divine usen't to say they contained traces of milk. Although it has been about a year and a half since I had any chocolate - evidently things have changed! Will be buying celtic chocolate next time then.

Tar.Aldarion

They did email us their through process to test there is no contamination, so good on them.

Parnassia

Well, just to let you all know, customer care got back to me, here's what they had to say:

Thank you for your recent email to Green & Black’s. I was sorry to read of your concern having noted the changes to the dairy allergen and vegan labelling of our dark chocolate bars. I will do my best to explain these changes in a clear and comprehensive manner.

Green & Black’s announced changes to the dairy allergy statements on the wrappers of our dark chocolate bars in May. There has been no change to the recipe of these bars; the change is simply in the way in which the risks of dairy cross contamination are being communicated on bar wrappers. I will outline the background behind this decision below:

As you are aware, there are no milk ingredients in the recipe of our Dark chocolate bars and this continues to be the case. However, the bars are produced on the same production line as Milk chocolate bars within our range. The bars have previously, therefore, carried the following statement to reflect this: ‘Manufactured in a factory that handles dairy ingredients.’

A recent audit revealed that traces of milk residues can still be found on manufacturing equipment despite intensive cleaning. Therefore, in order to ensure that consumers are at minimum risk, our allergen statements have been changed and we clearly state on pack that milk residues may be present in dark chocolate bars across the range. This is indicated by the inclusion of ‘Organic Whole Milk Powder’ within the ingredients list itself and a ‘Contains Milk Ingredient’ statement on pack. The Vegan labelling has also consequently been removed from pack. The new packaging has already been printed and is filtering through to supermarkets over the next few months as you have indeed noted . To re-iterate, this labelling change will affect all dark chocolate products within our range.

Therefore, there is actually no change to the risk to allergy-sufferers as the recipes and ingredients that go into the making of the bars have not changed. What we are now clearly stating on pack is that we cannot guarantee the absence of milk. It is almost certainly going to be present – albeit at a low level. This packaging change ensures that consumers, especially milk allergy sufferers, are aware of the possibility and this represents a positive step in consumer communication.

We are eager to inform consumers of this change to prevent any possible concern that may arise. Therefore, this information is displayed clearly on our website at www.greenandblacks.com and we have been working with organisations such as Allergy UK , the Anaphylaxis Campaign and the Vegan Society to ensure that this may be clearly communicated to allergy sufferers and vegans alike.

Partially in response to customer feedback, we are currently considering the possible addition of a few explanatory lines on pack to further clarify the reasons for the addition of ‘Organic Whole Milk Powder’ to the ingredients list. This would be a positive step in ensuring that consumers are not unnecessarily alarmed when spotting these changes on pack.

Separate dedicated lines for our dark and milk chocolate bars would be the only way to eliminate the risks of dairy cross contamination in the dark chocolate. At present, the restrictions for organic segregation and the design of plant we need for our type of chocolate restricts the availability of equipment. We are very certain however that we must work towards alternative equipment and we are planning to provide a dedicated production line by the end of 2009. Our hope is that we can make product available early in 2010.

I hope that this information, along with the attached FAQ’s and image of the new labelling, is of some help to you to further clarify our position. However, if you have any further queries or comments at all, please do not hesitate to contact me again. I have also duly noted your contact details and please be assured that I will contact you again should there be any changes to our dairy allergen labelling in future.

Kind Regards


So it's pretty much guaranteed to contain traces of milk, but it's not an ingredient.

sweet-rasmus

I have switched to Divine chocolate also - I pick it up at Cornelscourt in Foxrock, Co. Dublin. If in Galway, then head to the Oxfam shop on Lower Abbygate street in Galway town.