Chocolate chips

In the US--we buy Hershey's milk chocolate (and their semi sweet). Hershey's labels well here, and they are very clear when their chips have may contains.

If it eases your mind, you can buy Vermont Nut Free chocolate and bake with that--assuming they ship to Canada.

Thanks- We are in the U.S. The Safeway chocolate chips are imported.

I would love to use Hershey's or Vermont Nut-free chocolate chips, but I don't think they are dairy-free...are they?

I always use Hershey's chocolate chips [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

Try Enjoy Life chocolate chips if you want dairy free. If you look at their website it will list where you can buy them near you or you can order them online.

I use Hershey's or Nestles chocolate chips without any problems. I just bought a huge bag at my local Costco for the same price I'd pay for 2 little bags at my local grocery store.

The Vermont Nut Free semi-sweet chocolate chips do not contain milk, however they are labeled as processed on equipment that processes dairy.

My daughter is very lactose intolerant and they have never bothered her. However, she is not allergic to milk. They could discuss with you on the phone if you are interested in purchasing them.

Safeway Select is considered a no-name product.

Are you comfortable using no-name?

The "May Contain....." label is strictly voluntary and they do not have to say it if they don't want to.

If I knew for sure that Baker's or Hershey's Chipits were the manufacturer of the no name product, I would buy them......but.....Hershey's Chipits are the only ones that come in the really big bag for around $5.00 Cnd. The smaller bags (no matter who makes them) are ussually around $3.00 so, FOR ME, it makes sense to buy a large SAFER bag then pay more to take a chance. [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

On a personal note: I prefer Baker's but the kids don't care, so I'll get the less expensive chipits.

Forgot to say.......the big bag of Chipits is NOT AVAILABLE at Safeway, I get them from either Superstore or Costco. [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/redface.gif[/img]

Thanks for the Enjoy Life recommendation and other advice. We haven't found the Enjoy Life chocolate chips yet, but our local natural foods grocery has Enjoy Life cookies. DD just had her first store-bought cookies ever and really liked them!

I have to tell you that I purchased a bag of Nestle choc chips and was horrified to find that there was peanut butter chip and a half peanut butter/half chocolate chip in the bag. I guessed that to mean that they were switching over online at the time they were making my bag. I havent purchased them since. I would be careful of all brands even Hershey if they use the same machinery or at the least inspect the chips before dumping in the dough. Im new ...just found out today that DS went from RAST of .77 at 2YO to a 12 now that he is 4. Sigh.

did you call the company and tell them? i heard on an australian site that someone found a peanut m&m in skittles. i questioned the skittles company and they said that it was impossible because the m&ms are made so far away from the skittles, maybe another building, cant remember. anyway, im thinking that the australian plant is different. you should call nestle to inform them/complain.

If I am not mistaken, Nestle does use shared equipment for their chips and will not label for cross contamination. Hershey does label certain flavors of the chips for cross contamination, so some are on non-peanut/nut equipment.

Not that it makes it okay for a peanut flavored chip to be in the wron bag. Companies will do recalls for such things, since it is still a mislabelled product in that it had the wrong thing in the bag. I also think you should call them. becca

Quote:Originally posted by becca:
[b]If I am not mistaken, Nestle does use shared equipment for their chips and will not label for cross contamination. [/b]

Hi Becca,

It's too bad Nestle USA won't label their chips for cross-contamination.

For those of you in Canada, Nestle Canada always labels for cross-contamination (ie: manufactured in a facility that process peanuts, manufactured on equipment that processes peanuts, etc)

Oops! Sorry, I was posting USA specific! becca

Quote:Originally posted by becca:
[b]Oops! Sorry, I was posting USA specific! becca[/b]

That's ok Becca.. no need to say sorry! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

Nestle does label for contamination. That is, their milk chocolate chips have long been labeled as shared equipment, which is why I always buy the semi-sweet (of course reading the label every time in case it changes).

Wow, I will have to call them on that again. Where I live, I just checked a bunch of the Nestle bags a few weeks ago, and none had any warnings. So, I figured all was the same. Maybe they have changed, or it is a regional thing, depending on the facility that makes them for my area?

I use Hershey, but I have to say, I really loved the Nestle(USA) morsels in the toll house cookie recipe I grew up with. The hershey chips are less creamy, but fine. Just not the same as the memory I have! becca

[This message has been edited by becca (edited August 04, 2005).]

I thought Nestle labeled for ingredients and cross contamination? anyway the chips were butterscotch?

Yes, Nestle USA DOES label. I called them today. They said that the Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips are more likely to be the ones not labeled and so would be fine for those with Peanut Allergy. She said they are coming from 2 different production facilities so you have to check the Semi-Sweet ones each time for the "may contain" label since there's no other way to tell if it came from the peanut-free production facility or the other facility.

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geo

[This message has been edited by geo (edited August 10, 2005).]

I got some bad CS from nestle a few years back (she told me that they would soon be labeling some of their baking chips for cross contamination that weren't previously labeled, and that their practices hadn't changed so they were unsafe all along AND she was very snooty to me about it) and so I haven't used anything from them since. I take that back-I have used some carnation evaporated milk (twice) and libby's canned pumpkin (2 or 3 times) and for a couple of weeks after they took over chef america I used lean pockets (which I miss-might have to get those again).

This is US specific.

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[b]~Gale~[/b]

Forgot to mention-we used Guittard but Sam's club quit carrying it. Then we used Kroger brand for a while but that got to be inconvenient as we have no Kroger nearby, so we just started using Hershey's and haven't had any problems so far.

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[b]~Gale~[/b]