Fox's dark chocolate chunk cookies

[fredrikw]

It's not really. Might the kind of thing they do. It says 'contains', but the food standards agencies recomendation is to say 'may contain'.

Not necessarily, it seems to be some confusion about some EU regulations of this, which has led to some products here in Sweden that previously were labeled as "may contain traces of milk" now have "milk" in their ingredient lists, although the recipe hasn't changed and it's still a matter of possible cross contamination.

[muchluv]

It's not really. Might the kind of thing they do. It says 'contains', but the food standards agencies recomendation is to say 'may contain'.

Not necessarily, it seems to be some confusion about some EU regulations of this, which has led to some products here in Sweden that previously were labeled as "may contain traces of milk" now have "milk" in their ingredient lists, although the recipe hasn't changed and it's still a matter of possible cross contamination.

I was just using information I found on the Vegan society's facebook. Might not be strictly true..

[Hiking Fox]

It's not really. Might the kind of thing they do.

You clearly have no understanding of how food manufacturing works. If they mixed two batches on purpose, it wouldn't be two batches, it would be one batch. So that isn't possible and they probably haven't replied to your question because they either don't understand it, or think you're being weird.

When mass-produced food is made in factories, they make a batch of one product (e.g. milk choc chip cookies) and label the packs with that batch number, in case of any recall. Then they put a batch of another product through (e.g. dark choc chip cookies) and give that its own batch number. factories generally work 24 hours with night shift and day shift workers, to cut costs.

So ... if you happen to buy a pack of cookies that was one of the first off the production line, there will be traces of milk chocolate in it from the previous batch. If you buy one of the last packs, the amount of milk contamination will be negligible.

Only allergy-aware companies like Kinnerton clean the machinery thoroughly between batches to remove all possible traces of allergens. The cost of not producing anything for a while (i.e. having machinery stand idle) is reflected in the price of their products. A company like Foxs needs mass-market appeal, so they will only clean their factory thoroughly if it is going to shut down for a while, e.g. a bank holiday.

Hope this clarifies things.

Please don't discourage food manufacturers from catering for vegans!

[fredrikw]

Please don't discourage food manufacturers from catering for vegans!

+1000

We're vegans because we want political and social change, not for purity reasons or some made-up idea that getting ANY kind of animal product in us would be bad/a sin/unhealthy/bad karma or whatever. Sure, we do avoid it, but that's not the issue really.

[muchluv]

Hiking Fox, your post came across as a bit rude starting off with 'You clearly have no understanding'... I hope you didn't mean it like that.

Clearly I don't have much understanding about the manufacturing process. That is why I emailed them. What I do not know about food manufacturing could fill a book I'm sure. But what I would guess is that companies do some odd things when it comes to making food, and that is why I asked, as like i said, they used a different allergen warning to the vast majority of other food products.

As I said, there is a thread on another forum with people expressing similar frustrations about the lack of clarity from Fox's.

Fredickw, I am vegan for the same reason, but I would have personally avoided certain levels of cross contamination for myself, but I do not expect/think other people should be doing it.

But as I found out from Green and Blacks, may contain pretty much = contains (very small amounts) of milk. So I have accepted this and am not going to worry about it. Because of this, and realising Fox would have to put milk in the ingredients if they were doing what I said above, I am eating them and have eaten the best part of 3 packets so far. My waistline will not approve

[Lordmuppet]

I have yet to find these biscuits in Edinburgh There are very similar looking ones with milk chocolate but not these.

[Talyn]

They are very, very good biscuits. Not stodgy with the choc-chips like a lot of other choc-chip biscuits I've had before.

[baldy]

Baldy - not to worry: discovered today that Morrison's Double Chocolate Chip and Orange Double Chocolate Chip cookies are both vegan. You wouldn't like them.

Got them! Will be eaten tomorrow and report back. Also got the last millionaire's shortbread packet left on the shelf, hoping they taste better than the Waitrose ones, but 4 in a packet, really?

Still no sign of the mythical Fox's dark chocolate chunk cookies.

[ninearms]

Bought 2 packs of the Fox's ones today at the metropolis that is Leicester Tesco Extra. Verdict: you wouldn't like them.

[Talyn]

baldy, if you still can't track down a packet this week I will bring a couple of packets to the Bethnal Green comp on Saturday.

[skoptic]

denied at 3 Sainsburts.... waistline thanking me..

[xJimx]

the metropolis that is Leicester Tesco Extra.

No joke, this place is crazy big & sells all sort of odd stuff - only place in the UK I've seen Clif Bars for instance.

[Hiking Fox]

Hiking Fox, your post came across as a bit rude starting off with 'You clearly have no understanding'... I hope you didn't mean it like that.

When people contact food companies to ask paranoid questions such as whether they deliberately mix vegan and non-vegan batches, contaminate food etc. it reflects very badly on the rest of us. It makes companies less likely to cater for the vegan market; they'll conclude we're not worth the aggro.

The Co-op used to label loads of their products as vegan, but they stopped doing so following the actions of a bunch of idiots, who went all purist and attacked them over cross-contamination. There's now loads of vegan products that aren't labelled vegan, plus formerly vegan products that now contain milk powder, and they aren't responding to calls for more vegan products on their shelves.

So yes, actually, my tone was intended to come across as exasperated and I don't mind that you took it as rude. It's really hard to repair that kind of damage.

[muchluv]

Hiking Fox, your post came across as a bit rude starting off with 'You clearly have no understanding'... I hope you didn't mean it like that.

When people contact food companies to ask paranoid questions such as whether they deliberately mix vegan and non-vegan batches, contaminate food etc. it reflects very badly on the rest of us. It makes companies less likely to cater for the vegan market; they'll conclude we're not worth the aggro.

The Co-op used to label loads of their products as vegan, but they stopped doing so following the actions of a bunch of idiots, who went all purist and attacked them over cross-contamination. There's now loads of vegan products that aren't labelled vegan, plus formerly vegan products that now contain milk powder, and they aren't responding to calls for more vegan products on their shelves.

So yes, actually, my tone was intended to come across as exasperated and I don't mind that you took it as rude. It's really hard to repair that kind of damage.

The word vegan wasn't mentioned in my emails.

[skoptic]

Hiking Fox, your post came across as a bit rude starting off with 'You clearly have no understanding'... I hope you didn't mean it like that.

When people contact food companies to ask paranoid questions such as whether they deliberately mix vegan and non-vegan batches, contaminate food etc. it reflects very badly on the rest of us. It makes companies less likely to cater for the vegan market; they'll conclude we're not worth the aggro.

The last thing I'd want to do is reflect badly on you.......