They are vegan, right? THEY AREN’T?!
When I first started my vegan expedition, it didn’t take long for me to start looking for treats to keep me going. All those vegetables needed to be balanced with some refined sugar and a slap of indulgence. I happened on a blog post that named Oreo’s (among other things) as vegan. Whilst I wasn’t a huge fan of the biscuits, they were enough of a treat for me to start relying on them as my fallback if I needed to eat my emotions after a rough day at work.
So they, along with Bourbon Creams, became my go-to sweet snack of choice. And when people around me would invariably comment “I thought you were vegan, you can’t eat THOSE!”, I’d smugly respond “They ARE okay to eat ACTUALLY!” (#SmugVegan)
Until, as a Christmas treat, a friend gave me a small gift bag of vegan-friendly beers and a packet of Bourbons. “I was going to get you Oreos” she said, rather dolefully, “But when I checked online it said they weren’t vegan.” A small brouha ensued, at the end of which the internet ruled in her favour – Oreos are NOT vegan. Godammit!
And that’s the thing. Just because there is absolutely no meat or dairy in a particular item, that doesn’t mean they’re vegan. Like avoiding food made in the vicinity of nuts when you have a peanut allergy, food prepared in a factory that also uses meat or dairy appears to invalidate the vegan-ness of a product.
But I think I’ll class myself as an ‘Ingredient Vegan’ – one who is only interested in whether meat or dairy is specifically part of an ingredient list. I’m not sure how worried I am about a molecule of milk drifting into the packing area from a room at the other end of the factory. And there are a number of foods I eat that have no meat or dairy in their ingredients, but they don’t have the vegan leaf stamp. Items I rely on to keep me going in the wilderness…
So, strictly vegan or not, as far as I am concerned, Oreos are plant-based, and therefore, fair game (pardon the expression).
