In April 2010 I wrote about Green & Black’s dark chocolate now having milk declared as an ingredient. Not long after that I received an email from Craig Sams, President of Green & Black’s discussing this issue.
In short, Mr Sams stated that because of the fact that the dark chocolate was manufactured on equipment also used to make their milk chocolate, there is always the risk of contamination – even at very minute quantities. Thus they felt it was only responsible to make mention of this risk on their packaging. Further …
In the meantime they set about modifying production so that this risk of cross contamination can be eliminated. In September the milk ingredient will disappear and there will be a statement “Made in a factory that handles milk products”
I applaud any company which takes the responsible stance of informing customers of potential risks when it comes to common allergens. However most other companies have adopted a statement such as “may contain traces of dairy” or similar, and not actually declaring it as an ingredient as Green & Black’s does. And the Green & Black’s website still today lists “organic whole milk powder” as an ingredient in their 70% dark bar.
Whatever the reasoning, my personal opinion is that the quality of flavour and texture of a number of their range has decreased in the last few years, and thus it is no longer on my shopping list. I must say however that compared to many other organic chocolate products on the market, it is still superior in flavour and texture, and if you don’t have a problem with dairy, then it is not necessarily a bad choice.