I need help figuring out if there's anything vegan on the Einstein's Bagels menu.

Actually asking people who work there and emailing have gotten me nowhere.

For the record, I consider yeast fair game on the vegan diet (does anyone not?).


This is what I've found:

http://www.einsteinbros.com/business_opportunities/faq
Do you currently have vegan and/or vegetarian offerings on your menu?
We offer our signature VegOut® sandwich as a vegetarian option and any of our salads or sandwiches can be made without meat on request. We do not currently have vegan products; however, we are working hard to find ways to improve and expand our offerings so please keep checking back for any updates to our menu.
I don't quite get how they can serve things like coffee, have vegan soy milk available (that I did get to check briefly), and "not currently have vegan products." Which is why I hesitate to take this at face value.

http://www.veganpeace.com/ingredient...#Einstein_Bros
Statement made by: Tekia Welch, Guest Services, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc.
Date: March 1, 2013
"I am now pleased to say that we have finalized a transition over to a synthetic form of L Cysteine in our bagel recipes. At this time all bagels we produce for Einstein Bros. and Noah’s are made with a synthetic form of L Cysteine that does not contain duck feathers, however, the Kettleman-style boiled bagels in our Portland locations continue to use a form of L Cysteine derived from duck feathers as we are using the original Kettleman’s recipe and have not altered the formulation."

Then there's this, which (low on the page) lists allergen info but doesn't have a full list of ingredients (so there easily could be honey in many bagels, or some other random ingredient like the L Cysteine).
http://www.einsteinbros.com/sites/al...tional_PDF.pdf

& some personal websites that make it look like some bagels are ok but I have no idea where they get their info...
http://eatbouldervegan.blogspot.com/...not-local.html

http://www.veganeatingout.com/einste...s-bagels-menu/

Anyone? Personal opinions?

I have looked into Einsteins and not gotten an answer about vegan foods either.

I heard back from them! They won't call any of their products vegan, but list 4 bagels as particularly not vegan. Which implies you can assume the rest of their bagels are vegan, but doesn't confirm that... so there could be animal products in them.
Gotta love semantics.

My "suggestions" btw were that they carry vegan peanut butter and vegan hummus... since finding those are seriously not a stretch.




"Thank you for your interest in our products. The criteriafor Vegan are defined as:

- Containing no animal ingredients or animal by-products

- Using no animal ingredients or by-products in the manufacturing process

- Not tested on animals by any company or independent contractor



According to the criteria mentioned above, these four bagels cannot be considered vegan at this time:

- 100% Whole Wheat with Honey - contains honey and that disqualifies that item from being considered vegan (animal by-product)

- Pumpernickel - contains soy lecithin which may bederived from an animal source

- Chocolate Chip - contains milk

- Asiago - contains milk



We are pleased to say that we have finalized a transition over to a synthetic form of L Cysteine in our bagel recipes. At this time all bagels we produce for Einstein Bros. and Noah’s are made with a synthetic form of L Cysteine that does not contain ingredients derived from animals. However,please note that will not make any claims that any that our items are guaranteed to be vegan at this time as we do carry animal products in our stores and the possibility for cross-contamination does exist.



In addition, your suggestions for new vegan items have been forwarded to our management team.



I hope this information has been helpful. Thank you again for taking the time to contact us."

I always google "(Insert Restaurant Name) Allergen Information" to glean a rough idea of what's vegan or not. Scroll down about two-thirds of the way on this link: http://www.einsteinbros.com/sites/al...tional_PDF.pdf

A plethora of their bagels are dairy free. Even Chocolate Chip, which is interesting. Too bad they don't carry Tofutti cream cheese! The Cinnamon Twist muffin is the only muffin that doesn't have milk and eggs. They offer a soy latte, as well. They also have a Southwest Veggie Quinoa soup that looks to be vegan.

Lots of their bagels are milk free. Not dairy free- they could still contain things like whey, casein, milk proteins, etc while not being made with milk.

Also- weird, that chart contradicts the email they JUST emailed me saying their chocolate chip bagels have milk in them.


I'd be in heaven if they had a nondairy cream cheese...

"Whey, Casein, Milk Protein, etc." are all allergens and "Milk" encompasses them all when it comes to labeling. A company wouldn't be cute with semantics and risk sickening customers.

Edit: Here's their ingredient list: http://www.campusdish.com/NR/rdonlyr...gredients1.pdf

I've never heard that "milk" on labels or allergen lists covers all diary- what other companies or websites do that??

This is getting tiresome but I'll use google one more time.

http://www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregu.../ucm106890.htm

"FALCPA identifies eight foods or food groups as the major food allergens. They are milk, eggs, fish (e.g., bass, flounder, cod), Crustacean shellfish (e.g., crab, lobster, shrimp), tree nuts (e.g., almonds, walnuts, pecans), peanuts, wheat, and soybeans."

It goes on to say that if there is an ingredient such as casein, it needs to be labeled separately within the ingredients. But the allergen label is Milk. If you're still not comfortable with all this, you should probably just avoid most restaurants.

That makes me feel bad for trying to use a forum- specifically set up for people who are learning- to learn more from people who potentially already know more than I do.

I asked for examples because most of what I've seen are labels with "dairy" instead of "milk." Off the top of my head, General Mills and Ener-G both use "dairy."

I actually side with you on the confusion. I'd prefer a "Dairy" label. I guess it's not as strict as the FDA guidelines lead on. I know for example I've come across chocolate containing "butterfat" and the allergen warning will say "Milk". Then there are other "Lactose Free" products like some rice cheeses that contain Casein. So they're "Lactose Free" but not "Dairy Free" and they don't list allergens at all. I read every ingredient and try not to eat anything with an ingredient list the length of my arm, so there are probably other examples I've yet to encounter.

BTW, I mean't no offense, I'm always learning myself. I guess I had more faith in the labeling process than I perhaps should have.

They probably expect you to be a genius to understand.

Update- I wrote them back pushing more and they sent me a full ingredients list for most of their stuff!