Aussies stunned by 'misleading' chocolate packaging discovery
Vegans have taken aim at an Aussie-based company over what's been described as 'misleading' packaging.
An Australian vegan has called out a popular homegrown brand accusing the manufacturer of "potentially deadly" mixed messaging on its packages, with the dairy-intolerant NSW woman claiming to have suffered a reaction from food listed as free of animal products.
Wallaby Foods has long been a popular staple in the pantries of vegan Aussies — with their sweet treats being stocked in both the nation's biggest supermarkets Coles and Woolworths — but this week, the vegan community has taken aim at the company over what they say is misleading packaging.
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, NSW woman Elena Filipczyk, who is a vegan for ethical reasons but is also anaphylactic and allergic to dairy, said she suffered a minor reaction to a Wallaby Foods product last week, which she suspects was due to dairy being present in its cookie dough bites, despite it being labelled "always vegan".
Company accused of 'misleading packaging' by Aussie vegans
Filipczyk said in extreme circumstances when food isn't labelled correctly, she could be killed.
From the state's Mid North Coast, Filipczyk recalled that on another Wallaby product, the dark chocolate thins, the front of the package states "vegan" but on the back, it clearly says "contains milk/dairy", which she noted was different from when packaging says "may contain".
"When I bought it [the cookie dough bites] I obviously thought it was vegan, so I thought it was safe," Filipczyk told Yahoo. "I always read the ingredients just to make sure," she continued. "But then within the hour I had a really bad stomachache took some pretty strong antihistamines, which is kind of the step before using an epipen.
"I felt awful for the rest of the night. I went to bed early and was thankfully fine. But yeah I definitely think there was dairy, whether it was intentional or accidental."
Wallaby Foods explains dairy listing on vegan packaging
In September of 2023, Wallaby's cookie dough bites were recalled after they were found to contain traces of dairy, despite there being none listed on the package, which was also labelled vegan.
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, Mark Stephan COO of the Byron Bay Superfoods Company, which produces Wallaby Foods, said "we take the product labelling requirements of all our products very seriously".
"Both our Wallaby thins and Wallaby cookie dough bites satisfies a vegan preference as there is actually no milk in the chocolate," Stephan told Yahoo. "We ensure with best endeavours that the Wallaby thins and Wallaby cookie dough bites have no animal solids... the chocolate that we purchase for the thins and bites has no milk in the product.
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Milk listed in ingredients as a precaution, company says
"However, the company that provides the chocolate has a ‘may contain milk clause’ in its specifications as their plant has milk chocolate in the same facility and there is a very low chance of a cross contamination issue. Therefore we place milk solids in the ingredients of this product out of an abundance of caution."
Stephan added that both products have been on the market for some time and they have "had no issues".
However, to "alleviate any possible future confusion over the coming months" the company is "in the process of manufacturing the product where the vegan statement from the pack has been removed and leaving the milk solids in the ingredients".
"We would prefer to leave the milk solids in the ingredients as a safety precaution," he said. "The cookie dough bites product has been selling well since its product recall in September 2023 and we do not believe the recall is related to this specific labelling matter."
Being vegan 'isn't always a choice', woman reminds manufacturers
Filipczyk cautions that it's 'really important' for companies to be careful about what goes in their products. "For both ethical and medical reasons, it's really important that companies like Wallaby, who claim their products are vegan, are really careful about not only what goes into their products, but labelling as well, because it's the labels that give you peace of mind," Filipczyk said.
"I think that's really misleading for a company that has both dairy and non-dairy or vegan and non-vegan products, having a label that says "always vegan".
"It's really misleading and either way, they just need to be super upfront. For both medical and non-medical reasons. I think it's easy for companies to forget that [being vegan] is not always a choice for some people, it's a medical necessity as well."
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