Green & Black's Chocolate no longer vegan!!!
I'm not sure if this has already been posted as I have been taking a bit of a break from VW but......
I have just found out the Green & Black's chocolate is now no longer vegan. Yep, they have decided to add to add organic whole milk powder to their dark chocolate ranges. Previsouly their dark chocolate ranges in the UK were pretty much all vegan and I have a feeling they were in the US too.
I checked out the bars today in my local shops and found this out. I have also looked at both the UK and the US website and found that it seems to be the case for both countries.
I have already sent an email to them complaining about this. Please can everyone else email them too just so they know that there are people out there who are affected by this.
Thanks
how awful!
when people ask me about vegan chocolate, i often tell them that most american dark chocolate contains dairy as a filler, but a lot of the european ones are vegan. well, i guess that's no longer necessarily true.
honestly, i was never too crazy about g&b (they don't alkali process the cocoa, so it always tastes kind of sour), but this was always the standard vegan chocolate bar i would see at grocery stores in england :( it's weird that there aren't more options.
there are quite a few other options, but G&B was one I would always mention to people as it was so easy to find and was labelled as 'suitable for vegans'
So so pissed off!!
That's kind of sad, I don't know why they'd do that. I often take G&B to my vegan friend's house when I stay over, will be a shame to lose that little ritual. I will definitely email them, thanks for the tip, Shelloid :)
Here is a link to the FAQ's from their site with a whole bunch of Q&A's at the end about it:
http://www.greenandblacks.com/us/information/frequently-asked-questions.html
There have been no changes. They realized that there was some cross contamination between their milk and dark lines that they felt they couldn't prevent, but that was enough to cause a reaction in those severely allergic to casein, so they changed their labeling to make everyone aware. Getting upset won't help.
One of many Q&A's from the site:
The vegan statement has gone; has the product ever been suitable for vegans?
By definition vegan products contain no ingredients derived from animals within the recipe and this still remains true for Green & Black’s dark chocolate. However as our dark chocolate is made on the same production line as our milk chocolate there is some risk of cross contact. As a result, the desire for clearer allergen labelling now conflicts with the vegan statement and we have reluctantly decided to remove it from our labelling.
Thanks for that Nutdragon - so basically there could always have been traces but they never told me?
eta: I have never been sure how I feel about - 'made on same lines as products containing milk' The above statement didn't mean to come out sounding rude!
upsetting, sure, but its very responsible of the company
so wait, is this a matter of a new allergen statement (about being produced on the same equipment as milk products), or is their milk actually listed in the ingredients? I is confuseded.
i'm pretty sure the last time i looked at a g&b dark chocolate bar it had milk listed in the ingredients...so i didn't buy it... :(
I'm curious now to visit my local organics stores to see if the G&B contains milk. I guess it would all be 'ported from the same country/factory to everywhere, but I wanna check. :smirk:
That's really really sickening. Milk organic or not just RUINS chocolate -- in any amount. So wrong, so wrong.
Green and Black USED to be my favorites, but awhite back made a big advertising push, so it's obvious they wanted more mainstream buyers. You know those Americans -- gotta have their creamy, rich, hearty, luxury crap -- even if it kills em!
That's really really sickening. Milk organic or not just RUINS chocolate -- in any amount. So wrong, so wrong.
Green and Black USED to be my favorites, but awhite back made a big advertising push, so it's obvious they wanted more mainstream buyers. You know those Americans -- gotta have their creamy, rich, hearty, luxury crap -- even if it kills em!
What the hell is up with the American bashing? I recognize this post is old, but I was researching this topic today and was very disheartened to see the rudeness here where I least expected it.
Bloody hell. I love Green & Black! It's the best you can get for the price range by a mile.
Dear Green & Black,
POLITELY FUCK YOURSELF.
Love,
base
Huh, I forgot to come back to this.
Sure enough my dad brought me a G&B bar from England last May and, unbeknownst to him, there was "whole milk" listed in the ingredients. Maybe they took off "vegan" from the label prior to the ingredients switch. I doubt they would have milk listed in the ingredients if it was just a matter of potential contamination.
I never really noticed a difference between dark chocolate with some milk and dark chocolate without in my pre-vegan days. I don't know why they bother putting it in. Cheap filler?
If it was like the one I saw, the milk ingredient was the last listed and had two asterisks after it, which led to a note that it was listed for allergen purposes only. And there was the usual statement about being made on shared equipment. I had bought a bar, forgetting about all this discussion, and I freaked out on two different occasions when I read the milk in the ingredients. And then I saw the asterisks and remembered--oh yeah, they didn't really add milk to it on purpose. Nothing has changed except the labeling. (Read nutdragon's post.) They just chose to warn people about the possible contamination in a weird way.
Equal Exchange is my chocolate bar of choice anyway. ;)b
Wha? The one I got had no such asterisks.
Maybe packaging differences due to different countries?
CRAP CRAP CRAP MOTHER FUCK. Sorry for the profanity but why the heck didn't I see this post before now???? A few weeks ago I bought about four bars because the HFS had a significant sale on the 85% Dark. Sure enough - milk products! I eat a little bit almost daily for health/blood pressure purposes. I still have a bar and a half left. Dammit.
You live and learn. Thanks for the information, that's why I love this site.
I have found a truly great raw vegan chocolate. It is by Vivir Living Foods. They have wonderful chocolates that include chocolate covered organic cherries. YUM!!!
You can find it at Vivirlivingfoods.com.
I hope this helps.
About a month ago I asked my partner for a boat-load of G&B chocolate for my holiday present. (It's really expensive where I am). I am pretty confident he bought me the chocolate... crap. I hate to ruin the surprise and ask him to return it...
i recently got a bar of the dark chocolate with dried cherries in it - still vegan as far as i could tell. no milk in the ingredients list.
Lucky you! You must have found one that was made before they decided to infuse them all with animal products.
Savor it for us all ;)b
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