"Made in a factory that process..." What do they mean?

[Rigelol]

(I hope that i opened this topic in the correct section)

 

I think is common experience for everyone here to go in the grocery, read the ingredients on the back of a product we would like to buy and find one of this two statment:

-"May contain trace of milk/egg/(whatever)"

-"Made in a factory that process diary/egg/ or bla bla bla"

 

As the first one is not so hard to get: it mean that you can actualy find some milk in there, so is not suitable for us to eat...

I struggle a lot with the second one, i give it 2 possible interpretations:

-First: "We are not so vegan friendly, we process also other stuff, but in what you're eating there's anything animal, enjoy it"

-Second: "We don't give a damn if a piece of egg goes into this, so take care"

 

What make me perplexed is that also on "vega one bar" they say "Made in a factory that process peanuts sesame diary and soy". Generally what does mean if we find "made in a factory that process..." written on the back of a product?

 

Thank you everyone, hope i'm not the only one that's still struggling with that xD

[Fallen_Horse]

They both say the same thing. They are really just statements that help prevent the manufacturer from getting sued by people with allergies. Neither of those statements indicate that the product has been made with non-vegan ingredients, only that the product was made in a system or on machines that may have also come into contact with non-vegan ingredients.

[muchidna]

i assume it's something along the lines of

gingernut biscuits, (the ones avaliable here) don't contain milk or eggs, but i would assume they would be made on the same line as scotch fingers, which do contain them, i would also assume that they clean machinery between products, but i don't know

[Neraida]

You never know... I guess it is the same thing when I prepare my food in the same kitchen that my husband cooks his (unfortunately non-vegan!) meals in.

But I sure hope that they clean the machines after each usage, just like the hubster does!

[James565]

You are not the only one struggling with that. It took me a while to wrap my head around too.

[Rigelol]

-And how you usually deal with that guys (in general, with every product)?

-Don't you think is strange that vega bar could contain milk?

[muchidna]

for the most part, i don't eat the types of processed foods that might contain those warnings anyways, i find alot of the foods with those warnings are .. well, junk food, stuff like biscuits, chips, rice crackers, noodles, etc, typical cheap and nasty foods

[superman1234]

It means there may be traces (but not large amounts) of milk or whatever other food that are listed.

[blabbate]

It's exactly what Fallen_Horse said. In all likelihood, these products don't contain milk or eggs or whatever, because the machines are cleaned between products. The warning is more about covering the company's ass in the case of litigation due to an allergic reaction.

 

For Vega, they're probably just not big enough to warrant a dedicated animal product-free facility, so they have to share space or lease machines.