alka2000
08-05-2009, 04:42 AM
I buy commercially-baked bread during the warmer months because I don’t feel like baking. The other day, the store was out of the vegan whole-wheat bread I usually get (Freihofer’s 100% Whole Wheat) so I bought a loaf of what I thought was something similar.
I double-checked the ingredient label today, and the last two ingredients are whey and nonfat milk.
Here’s the thing: there are 31 ingredients listed on this loaf wrapper. I counted them carefully. By law, ingredients must be listed in order from largest proportion of the recipe (“whole wheat flour” in this case) to smallest. The whey and milk are 17 places behind salt, and even come in behind calcium propionate, monoglycerides, and calcium sulfate.
I’m not beating myself up, even though I should have read the label first, because the scattering of cow secretion molecules I purchased this one time won’t matter to any animals. But as loaf after loaf of this bread is baked, I assume it adds up. And for what? NOBODY could possibly taste such a small amount of milk in this bread; I can’t see how it would affect the loaf’s color or texture; and the amount of nutrients such as calcium or protein from such a small amount of milk would have to be negligible. As near as I can tell, this merely makes the bread unsuitable for: vegans; those allergic to milk; and those observant of kosher dietary laws who might wish to eat the bread with a meat meal.
I double-checked the ingredient label today, and the last two ingredients are whey and nonfat milk.
Here’s the thing: there are 31 ingredients listed on this loaf wrapper. I counted them carefully. By law, ingredients must be listed in order from largest proportion of the recipe (“whole wheat flour” in this case) to smallest. The whey and milk are 17 places behind salt, and even come in behind calcium propionate, monoglycerides, and calcium sulfate.
I’m not beating myself up, even though I should have read the label first, because the scattering of cow secretion molecules I purchased this one time won’t matter to any animals. But as loaf after loaf of this bread is baked, I assume it adds up. And for what? NOBODY could possibly taste such a small amount of milk in this bread; I can’t see how it would affect the loaf’s color or texture; and the amount of nutrients such as calcium or protein from such a small amount of milk would have to be negligible. As near as I can tell, this merely makes the bread unsuitable for: vegans; those allergic to milk; and those observant of kosher dietary laws who might wish to eat the bread with a meat meal.