Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Any veggies out there?

Masterfoods have, for some inexplicable reason, decided to limit their market by making most of their chocolate unsuitable for vegetarians by using whey from animal rennet!
I cannot understand their logic, but presumably this sort of whey is a lot cheaper, as decisions like this usually end up being about money.

Anyway, you can see a list of what is and isn't veggie-friendly here (it includes things like Mars, Snickers, Maltesers, Galaxy, Bounty, Milky Way...). You can email them to tell them what you think here.

As I already boycott Nestle products due to their dodgy approach to baby milk, I now can't/won't eat most mainstream chocolate (with the exception, I think, of Cadburys?). Oh well, thank goodness for Green & Black's!

12 comments:

Cat Feathers said...

Thanks for pointing me towards the feedback mechanism! I can only assume their motives are financial so I suppose the only way they'll reverse their decision is if it works out cheaper for them to do so, but tbh even if they did I think I'd be unlikely/unwilling to trust them for some time after this move. Consider me well and truly lost as a customer, Masterfoods!

Still, I'm not *too* upset to _have_ to eat Green & Blacks... ;)

Paula said...

They lost me too. Its a truly silly decision considering the rise of interest in whats in food.

Anonymous said...

And they're no longer gluten-free. :-(

Sue H said...

I guess it's hard for vegetarians and vegans. I had never thought of things like that being problematic. And for people with gluten intolerance too, how sad.

Rain said...

I see no rhyme or reason for this apart from financial. Shame on them.

blueadt said...

Poor DD is gutted as she adores Maltesers. So we'll now be feasting on Cadbury's & Green & Blacks. She'll be introduced to posh chocolate at an early age! Today she asked me to check the best before date (Oct 1st) of the chocolate that was made with vegetarian whey & I think she wants to have a stockpile [VBG]

Anonymous said...

Hi Katie,

I saw your message at the Fyberspates yahoo group, and wanted to thank you for posting those pictures! I hope you blog them soon, I want to hear how you found the pattern! :-)

I posted the links at my blog - I hope you don't mind!

DMK said...

My partner used to host a list of vegetarian Mars products (since Mars weren't too good about telling the public) before they had this everything-is-meaty deal. Basically, before 1st May 2007 (or whenever they introduced all the meat) if your Mars chocolate was made in the UK (and had a 'U' in the code near the best before date) it was veggie, and if it was made on the European continent (and had a different letter in the code) it was not veggie. It was often hit and miss as to whether there was veggie 'U' stuff in the shops...

As far as I can guess, it's not the non-veggie whey itself which is cheaper, but the European production costs will be cheaper, and in the European factories they don't use vegetarian rennet.

Kat said...

Huh! I can't believe this!

gilraen said...

Thanks for the heads up! :)

And you are so right, thank God for Green and Black! :D

artyfartykat said...

It can only be financial. And from a hardened chocoholic,
Green and Black rule!!

blueadt said...

We've won!!!