You’ll Never Believe What’s in Your Dark Chocolate

If you’re vegan, lactose intolerant, or straight-up hate milk, we have some disturbing news for you: There could be milk in your dark chocolate.

The Food and Drug Administration released the results of a survey of dark chocolate and found that a whopping 61 percent of the 94 dark chocolate bars they tested contained milk. And that includes ones that claimed to be vegan, dairy-free, or lactose-free.

Bars that didn’t say “may contain milk” or “may contain traces of milk” weren’t off the hook, either—the FDA found milk in 75 percent of those, as well.

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The FDA says it conducted the survey after receiving reports that several people had bad reactions to eating dark chocolate.

Milk is allowed in dark chocolate, but the FDA requires that dark chocolate products that contain it explicitly say so. Why? It’s one of the eight major foods that can cause dangerous reactions in people. And according to the agency, chocolates are one of the most common sources of undeclared milk that causes allergic reactions.

Here’s how it likely happens: Milk can get into dark chocolate even if it’s not used as an ingredient by cross-contamination in the facility where the chocolate is made. So if milk chocolate is made on the same equipment as dark chocolate, it’s possible that some of that milk may end up in the dark chocolate.

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Allergic to milk or are trying to avoid it? You’ll definitely want to steer clear of dark chocolate with milk advisory labels. While the majority of them contained some level of milk, the FDA found that some of these products had milk levels as high as those that were in products that said they contained the ingredient. (By the way, 25 percent of dark chocolate tested that was labeled as “vegan” contained milk.)

The FDA issued the following guidelines to help:
1. People who are sensitive or allergic to milk should consider dark chocolate products as a “high-risk food”
2. Always check the ingredients list to see if it includes milk
3. Avoid all dark chocolate that has an advisory statement for milk, even if it has conflicting statements like “dairy-free” or “vegan.”
4. Be wary of products that say they’re dairy-free or don’t mention milk at all, unless the company reserves some equipment for making milk-free chocolate.

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While this is all freaky if you need to avoid milk, it’s worth pointing out that this wasn’t a huge sample size. Of 13 dark chocolate products tested that contained a “dairy-free” or “lactose-free” statement, two contained milk, and of the four products that were tested that claimed to be “vegan,” one contained milk.

Although, we get it: If you need to avoid milk, any amount is bad.

So does this mean you have to give up dark chocolate altogether if you have a milk allergy? If you want to be absolutely sure you’re not ingesting the allergen, it’s probably not a bad idea. (Sorry!)

All gifs from giphy.com.