It's just for people with super extreme allergies, and the companies don't want to get sued.

Like you said, it's an equipment thing.

 

Welcome to America, where you must swim through lines and lines of legal text meant to protect companies from your lawsuits.

Lets look at a product, say, chocolate chip granola bars.
The manufacturer doesn't have a giant machine and isolated assembly line JUST for the chocolate chip flavor, and then another warehouse for the white chocolate, and then a whole other factory for the raspberries & creme, and yet another factory/warehouse setup for the regular oat flavor.

Lets says that the regular oat flavor is accidentally vegan, and you want to eat it. It is made in the same warehouse as the other flavors. What if you are deathly allergic to milk? What if you could die? What if you are shopping at a store that only carries the Oat flavor without milk, and you're reading the label to see if they use milk...which could kill you. But fortunately, they have the statement that says its made on shared equipment, and may contain traces of milk.

There isn't enough demand for vegan items for there to be different warehouses, assembly lines, employees, etc just for the vegan products. A particular "snack factory" may only spend a few weeks making a certain snack, then they clean everything off and make something totally different. They can't be 100% sure that a tiny little trace of dairy from the previous product may wind up in the other snack.

*** My personal opinion: Vegan products are low in demand. To further lower that demand by boycotting vegan products that move through warehouses with other foods isn't going to help the situation. Personally, if an animal ingredient is not intentionally put into the recipe, and is listed as an ingredient, then I don't worry about it. (beware of 'natural flavoring, though') The chances of eating a few dairy/egg/whatever molecules is rather small anyways unless they really don't clean the equipment, but then they'd eventually have food poisoning issues.

 

I gather its for products where items containing dairy or whatever are made in the same factory, on the same equipment, or on the same lines.

I'm generally okay with eating things in that case. Same with stuff that's cooked in a vat where the oil may connect with oil from meat products, or sharing cooking equipment with omnis.

 

Thanks, this is a relief! I was really hoping it was the equipment but I wanted to be sure, since traces sounds like it could be the recipe or the equipment.

 

It is the equipment, and it's doesn't bother me. Factories will spend a couple of days producing one product, and then wash the equipment down and make another. They usually have several products on rotation in this way. The warning is for severe allergy sufferers, because there's a small chance that one piece of equipment doesn't get cleaned properly, and the next product is vegan but ends up with the tiniest trace amounts of a non-vegan allergen. The company doesn't want to get sued, which they would do if someone with, say, a dairy allergy ate their product and had a reaction without there being any mention of dairy on the packet.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deis

or sharing cooking equipment with omnis.

That's a good analogy!

Imagine that you're borrowing your omni mother's frying pan.
Before using it, you scrub it as best as you can with soap and hot water.
You may even scrub it a second time.

There still may be teensy traces of non-vegan products on it.
In fact, there may be teensy traces of non-vegan products on your dish sponge, now.
So now, every time you scrub your own cookware with that sponge, that may also contain traces of non-vegan food products.

This doesn't have any bearing on your ethical decisions, ethical purchases, and the food you will cook is still vegan. You're not hurting any animal by eating from a bowl that you washed with the sponge that you used to wash your mother's frying pan with.

The same logic can be applied to food producing companies.

 

Yes, don't worry about it.