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According to an FDA study most plain dark chocolate has milk in it. If it is produced in a factory which handles milk, it almost always has milk in it, even if it says its vegan and dairy free.

Does anyone know where I can buy or know of brands of dark chocolate (70% cocoa or more) which was produced in a completely dairy/milk free environment?

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    @rumtscho I thought some of the users of this site knew of a factory that does not handle milk/dairy at all. The best way is to contact them and check their full range which I am doing now as well.
    – TheLearner
    Commented Mar 6, 2017 at 14:23
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    It's rare but very important. I am highly allergic to milk and I am now sick because of baking using chocolate which claimed to be dairy free and vegan
    – TheLearner
    Commented Mar 6, 2017 at 14:27
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    Many vegetarians and vegans DO NOT MIND unintentional traces of whatever, as long as they are not put in there with commercial and/or culinary intent. Explicitly labelling such a product vegan (as opposed to there being no animal based ingredients in the ingredients list and a warning of "may contain traces of...") is bad form though.
    – rackandboneman
    Commented Mar 6, 2017 at 14:48
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    Had a friend who was nearly hospitalized because of carelessness of a similar sort. He's extremely allergic to fish and shellfish. Bar/restaurant didn't think using the same oil that they use for fry fish and shrimp was worth mentioning when he was getting french fries.
    – PoloHoleSet
    Commented Mar 6, 2017 at 19:55
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    Anything certified "Kosher Parve" should be ok for you. Part of Kosher dietary laws are no mixing milk and meat, so if it were to be used with meat, it can't have ANY milk in it. As parve can be used with meat, that would mean there is an impossibility of there being milk in there.
    – Mennyg
    Commented Mar 7, 2017 at 0:16

2 Answers 2

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If you want a product that is allergen/intolerance safe and/or compliant to a certain cultural standard - be it political (vegan, vegetarian), dietary (low carb, low fat), or religious (halal, kosher...), one statement of compliance usually does not make it safe to imply another.

How ingredients and allergens have to be labelled is very dependent on local law. If we are talking countries that are close to the european approach, everything intentionally added (and not considered removed again in the finished product!) will be in the ingredients list, and possible allergens will be in the allergen statement. If you find them provably present in relevant amounts without being in that list, do talk to the manufacturer and possible escalate to local food safety authorities. It is important to know that even in these countries there are exceptions to mandatory declaration for certain food groups (possibly having to do with trade secret protection being considered more important than health relevant information on foods considered unhealthy/for moderate consumption anyway); these are defined in relevant law - alcoholic beverages and indeed chocolate are typically among these exceptions, so find and read the relevant laws. Allergen labelling SHOULD not be affected by these exceptions but COULD be excepted.

Your best bet for finding something that will meet your criteria is looking at local manufacturers - if there was a globally active chocolate brand that only did dairy free in their production it would have been mentioned here by now...

These brands seem to have "vegan AND lactose free" products in the european market, if it helps:

http://www.moofreechocolates.com/ http://www.dammenberg.com/ https://www.plamilfoods.co.uk/

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  • Plamilfoods: "Our entire factory has never had any dairy in it, nor ever will. We are very much a vegan company, having started as an offshoot from the Vegan Society in the 60's and will always continue in this way :) Hope that helps, just let me know if you have further questions!"
    – TheLearner
    Commented Mar 7, 2017 at 16:10
  • "Today 'allergy management' is at the heart of how we make our products. For those that wish to avoid many ingredients, for instance dairy or nuts, either due to allergy or for ethical/religious reasons the 'exclusion from the production site' is more clearly defined and understood." That sounds promising too!
    – rackandboneman
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 8:21
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i found these dark chocolate chips

and an answer on there FAQ page. enter image description here

dont know if that is stringent enough for you but thought i would share.

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  • Many thanks for this. I have thankfully found a UK local producer as mentioned by rackandboneman above. They has been producing vegan products since the 60's in the U.K. and their factory has never had any milk, dairy or animal products in it. So it's perfect.
    – TheLearner
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 8:15
  • Great. i assumed you were in the USA based on your FDA comment. glad you found some.
    – Alaska Man
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 10:06

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