This is going to be a food free post. Last night while at work I got a comment from an anonymous person informing me that according to Oreo's are not vegan according to their own website. Apparently the Oreo's have milk as cross contact so they are not suitable for vegans. They went on to say that as a vegan blogger it's important to not promote non vegan items to potential vegans. I was having a horrible night at work, so at first when I read the comment I was a bit dramatic and almost cried. I felt stupid and a little defensive. But like I said this was minutes after an unfortunate incident happened at work. And honestly after the incident with the anonymous Trump supporter so long ago when I see any comment from anyone Anonymous my stomach kind of clenches.
Also I was confused because I have always heard everyone say vegans are accidentally vegan. And they have always been on Peta's accidentally vegan list. However I looked this morning and Peta has Oreo ice cream cones and Oreo thin 100 calorie snack packs on the list, but not Oreos. But then several other websites mention Oreos as a vegan option. But Anonymous is right, the Oreo website say that milk is a cross contact so they are not suitable for vegans.
It is NEVER my intention to promote non vegan food. I apologize if I provided false information. All I can do is try to be better.
Friday night I was flipping through the new Glamour magazine at work, and look what I stumbled across! A whole article with Chloe Coscarelli featuring several of her recipes! It was a positive article with beautiful looking food and it's right in the middle of a super mainstream magazine!! Amazing. We still have so to go and it can get depressing so I think we have to take moments here and there to appreciate that progress is being made.
This was my lap yesterday when I had to get up. It's been cold and grey and snowy so getting up is already an issue, and this doesn't help!!
Before I sign off I just want to apologize again for not checking the current status of Oreos. As I said I only want to eat and promote vegan food. But also I feel I need to say that we are all human, and we are trying our best. If you are a new or seasoned vegan don't get discouraged or beat yourself up if you make a mistake. Mistakes happen, it's part of being a human. And mistakes help us learn.
The vegan police are like the grammar police or the fashion police, and should just go away! Humans are fallible, and may the person who has no flaws cast the first stone. I'm so sorry some random thought it appropriate to comment. Hillary, you are posting engaging, kitty filled, foodie happiness on this blog and I hope you keep it up!
ReplyDeleteI am 100% with Ingrid. Oreos were said to be an accidentally vegan food for a very long time. It is not your fault that you did not know about the updated status until now. You are spreading the vegan message in so many ways and you should be so proud of that.
ReplyDeleteThat said, yay for Chloe!! I love her and I still hate what happened to her and her restaurants. I love that she is still getting her exposure and doing great things for the vegan community!
TRY not to let it bother you...I know...easier said than done. There are many things that are naturally or accidentally vegan that still have the disclaimer on the package that 'might be made in a facility' or something that I figured they were just legally covering their butts for those with life threatening allergies or something, ya know? Heck, I have even seen that disclaimer on VEGAN label stuff. I know there have been products that were vegan and then years later they weren't vegan any more.
ReplyDeleteHonestly this is why I hesitate to call myself vegan most times than not because of the 'vegan police'. We can only try our best. If we find out different then we can change our action from that point on.
At one point I wanted to call myself an "intentional vegan" which to me would be "I have every intention to be vegan but sometimes I miss something" but then I figured some people wouldn't understand that or disagree with that, too.
Many vegans are from mixed diet house holds - like myself - if the other people in my house eat non-vegan stuff I guess that could be considered cross contact or a share facility or whatever...so I guess it's just how stern each person is.
You just keep doing what you are doing! It's all any of us can really do...ya know!?
Hey Hil - don't take everything to heart.
ReplyDeleteI probably shouldn't tell you this but I accidentally ate 4 real meatballs on Wednesday night. I thought they were Trader Joe's meatless meatballs. My husband and I were both commenting on how authentic and meaty they tasted. After dinner, I had a bad feeling so I pulled the bag out of the garbage pail and...oops! They were beef. I was pretty horrified, but it was a mistake so I'm not going to beat myself up. The next day I was laughing about it to my sister. Reading your post today, I can't help thinking if this had happened to you, you'd be totally destroyed. You're just way to hard on yourself.
Oh - and please don't blackball me for the accidental meatball thing. Believe it or not, that was the first meat I've eaten since 2002. I've only been 100% vegan since late last year, but I'll have been vegetarian for 16 years in May.
Just wanted to let you know I'm enjoying your blog! Don't feel bad about the oreos- I also thought they were vegan. We're all just doing our best- like you said, live and learn.
ReplyDeleteIs it just a 'may contain traces' deal? Because that is more an allergy thing. I know everyone draws their own line, but I am generally fine with eating things that 'may contain traces', given that most vegan foods are not made in a 100% vegan facility. As long as the milk is not one of the actual ingredients.
ReplyDeleteHere in Australia, it is only the regular Oreos that are vegan (though they may contain traces), all the other flavours have actual milk in them. Where as it seemed like the US flavours were mostly vegan?
Anyway,regardless, we live in a non-vegan world, making our way as best we can. We would never intentionally eat something, and mistakes happen every now and then. So don't feel bad. If milk is an actual ingredient, then a lot of vegans have caught unawares. <3 <3 <3
Please don't feel too bad, Hillary! <3 I've heard conflicting things about whether Oreos are vegan (mostly regarding the sugar, but that's another one of those things everyone can make their own decision on), but if they don't actually contain milk as an ingredient, then they are just as vegan as any other vegan foods that might have accidental cross-contamination with non-vegan ingredients during production.
ReplyDeleteWhhhaaaattt???
ReplyDeleteThey aren’t vegan because maybe one day they were near a machine that has dairy products??
I don’t get it.
The Oreos don’t actually *contain* the dairy.. and literally every company on earth posts an epic cross contamination dissertation because they’re scared of being sued by someone with a life threatening allergic reaction.
Absolutely not worth another thought and i think was a major overreaction on the part of Anonymous.
Ttrockwood
THis person sounds like they are just trying to be better than everyone else. Cross contamination is a personal issue with most vegans. There are a lot of vegan foods that still need to share factories with non-vegan products. It would be increadibly hard to not use ANY foods that have shared facilities. I think the company is just covering their tracks just to avoid headlines "OREOS HAVE MILK IN THEM!" because someone did a test to see if there was any trace amounts of milk.
ReplyDeleteChris Cooney, aka The Vegan Zombie, a vegan for over 23 years, recently contacted the company and the sugar in this product may be non-vegan as well (filtered through bone char). Unless the Oreo product says vegan, one should assume it is not.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/26lcE-oE-ak?t=607, at 10:14 - 10:32