false advertising

[veggiemom22]

Since I live in a small city, there aren't very many places where I can get vegan products. But, one store has dairy products made by a company called "Veggie" and I always bought a lot of them. Then I found out that they have milk protein in them...yuck...

According to my Vegetaraian Times cookbook, casein is milk derived and is used in alot of soy cheeses. But, this is also found in "Veggie's" sour cream, too. It just pisses me off that instead of being honest this company is claiming to be something it's not. I feel like writing them a complaint letter.

[Erin Pavlina]

Before you get too upset with them, realize that veggie refers to vegetarian. Vegetarians do eat milk and milk proteins.

Always look on the product for the word "vegan" If you see anything else, don't assume it's vegan.

If you're looking for substitutes for meat and dairy products, visit this link.

[jewels]

I use to think its was all a part of a conspiracy, even before non vegan soy cheeses, like nondairy creamer that is indeed dairy, I never understood what was up with that. I don't know how many times I've picked something up, read the ingredients and been like Whey... no way! You would think there would be some other ingredient beside whey and casien to make non dairy stuff totally non dairy and the way they want there product to be. maybe there is just more lactose iltolerent and dairy eating soy lovers than vegans.
~Julie

[alexis]

eh....I still think it's a conspiracy to trick us vegans into eating something we don't want to...lol...but I'm paranoid =)...my idea of MacDonalds is this bunch of evil scheming suits in the board room going "Let's see what new product we can come up with to sucker people into eating carcasses and put more money in our evil, pro-consumerist pockets"...lol...that's my paranoia...

[jewels]

yeah I still think it is a conspiracy too, just didn't want to seem negative- even with like morning star farm stuff, I have never really had much of there stuff because they gotta go throw egss in everthing- I am sure they could find a way to make stuff w/o the eggs! it is crazy all the stuff out there with animal products in them, even the meat eaters I know will offer me something and I will be like no it has chicken fat or cow eyelids or something weird that you wonder how they decided to add that to food- anyways even they will be like "why do they need to put that in it?"

[alexis]

Yeah well, and the recent 'healthy eating' campaign in my country must be another of those conspiracy things...they've started adding cows milk to things like curries which would have been otherwise vegan. And the reason? Cow's milk is a 'healthier alternative' to coconut milk...yeah, sure, whatever...

[Casey]

I don't think there's any conspiracy going on, I just think there aren't enough vegans for companies to care one way or the other whether their products are acceptable to us. Most companies respond when there's a large demand for something and unfortunately, so far, there aren't enough vegans to create critical mass. Profit is the driving force, so manufacturers do what's cheap and efficient. Since there are massive dairy subsidies (at least in the US) we end up with a huge over-production of milk and a cheap supply of milk products which have found their way into all kinds of foods that they don't "need" to be in. Milk producers get to make more money by flogging milk derivatives (casein, whey, etc) and food manufacturers get a supply of cheap ingredients to achieve the desired taste and feel in their products, which they sell to a predominantly non-vegan market and non-vegans don't care if a soy cheese contains casein, they just want it to feel and melt like "real" cheese.

One of the challenges of being vegan is always having to read ingredient labels (even of foods you've bought before, just in case they change), educate yourself about weird sounding ingredients and never stop questioning what's in stuff. If a company advertises a food as vegan and it has casein in it, that's false advertising. But a company selling veggie or vegetarian products isn't being deceitful if those products contain dairy or eggs. It sucks and I wish it wasn't like that, but most companies are not altruistic entities, they're in business to make money and the reality is that vegans are just not big money-makers. Thank goodness for the handful of companies that do cater to vegans and have created wonderful products that make our lives so much easier - even if their products are more expensive, difficult to find or cost a fortune in shipping charges!

[xmysticprincessx]

I had kinda wondered before when I saw those Veggie and similar products: who eats them? Most regular vegetarians I know would just eat regular cheese and not pay twice as much for something that really wasn't cheese. And if they wanted something organic, I see lots of organic cow milk cheese at the store. I also thought about lactose intolerant people, but are there really that many of them? And don't they have Lactaid now so that they can "enjoy their favorite foods?" So I dont see that many lactose intolerant people buying Veggie and similar products.
Not that I'm putting down companies like Veggie Foods, but I've been curious who the target market is.

[Casey]

Good point! Most of these products look so unappealing.
In my experience the people buying soy cheeses and the like are a mixed bunch - some vegetarians who aren't ready to commit to veganism but think that buying soy cheese is making some kind of statement, a lot of people who are lactose intolerant (in North America the statistics are something like 15% of whites are lactose intolerant and 75% of blacks and hispanics), some people choosing soy for other health reasons (although I think the health benefits of soy cheese are probably debatable) and a few unsuspecting vegans! One vegetarian family that I know eats dairy, but buys soy cheese for the son who is lactose intolerant - the soy cheese is not vegan and it's much more like dairy cheese than any vegan version I've ever tried (including Follow Your Heart's Vegan Gourmet).

My guess is that the market is mostly those with health reasons for buying soy alternatives, so they want something as close to the real thing as possible. The market for those with ethical reasons is definitely not big enough.

[jewels]

I think another large group of people buying these dairy non dairy things are people buying it for vegan company of family memebers so when thier vegan loved one tells them they can't eat it they have another reason to be annoyed about thier dietery restrictions. yes conspiracy indeed. --- seriously though I think there are some really good vegan cheeses out there that taste close to the real thing, so if they can make a cheese that melts well and taste good why can't everybody?