[Pyro]

I was just at the store to pick up my favorite snack, the 88% dark chocolate endangered species bar. Glancing at the label to compare it to the other bars, it appears that they changed everything.

Their bars are now produced on shared equipment with dairy. On the website it doesn't mention anything about it, though. I went ahead and emailed them to see what's going on but I'm already bummed.

Even worse, I went ahead and ate one anyway and I'm extremely irritable right now. That's one of my usual primary dairy'd symptoms. I'll feel like I don't belong in my own skin and get very uncomfortable which makes me irritable.

[Pyro]

Still no reply. I'm becoming very disappointed with this brand.

Would some other people mind e-mailing them and asking them the same?

[Lisa]

Pyro, on Aug 13 2008, 07:27 PM, said:

I was just at the store to pick up my favorite snack, the 88% dark chocolate endangered species bar. Glancing at the label to compare it to the other bars, it appears that they changed everything.

Their bars are now produced on shared equipment with dairy. On the website it doesn't mention anything about it, though. I went ahead and emailed them to see what's going on but I'm already bummed.

Even worse, I went ahead and ate one anyway and I'm extremely irritable right now. That's one of my usual primary dairy'd symptoms. I'll feel like I don't belong in my own skin and get very uncomfortable which makes me irritable.

Many of the Endangered Species Chocolate Bars are gluten free to my knowledge, but I have not read every label. Perhaps, I don't understand something. I would assume that there has to be some dairy even in an 88% chocolate bar.

[tarnalberry]

they've had that warning on there for a long time - four or five years at least. unfortunately, sometimes it gets cut off in the printing, but it's been there.

[Pyro]

I've never seen it before at all. That's horrible they'd let something so important like that get cut off.

As for dairy, dark chocolate is supposed to be dairy free.

Do you have a chocolate to recommend? I don't know a safe brand anymore other than Shaffenburger but they don't taste good IMO.

[Mango04]

Yeah I think those bars have always been made on shared equipment. It doesn't mean they have dairy in them though. I'm highly sensitive to casein and I can eat them without problems.

[Phyllis28]

Enjoy Life makes a dark chocolate bar. It is very good. I think they must be new because I have only started seeing them at Whole Foods within the last couple of weeks. They passed my husbands taste test and dark chocolate is his favorite.

[tarnalberry]

the ingredients in a pure dark chocolate are cocoa, cocoa butter, sugar, and vanilla and soy lecithin are optional. that's all you *need* to make a pure dark chocolate bar.

quite honestly, though, after touring more than one chocolate factory, even an artisanal one, the chances of finding a chocolate bar that's made on lines dedicated to not having dairy on them are LOW. virtually all chocolate makers have a milk chocolate option, and the lines are shared at some point, though they are generally washed in between. you may want to consider whether or not the symptom was psychosomatic this time, given that you were already angry. (maybe not, but something to consider.)

some of my favorites are pricey, and can be hard to find (though Whole Foods usually has them, or they can be ordered online in the winter), but they're worth it, imho:

1. blanxart - spanish chocolate
2. michel cluizel - french, soy free
3. domori - italian
4. pralus - french
5. seeds of change
6. castelain - french, soy free
7. theo chocolate - american, from seattle!, soy free
8. dagoba - portland

all of these companies make milk chocolate. I highly doubt any of them have completely separate lines for dark and milk chocolate. having toured the small theo factory, I know they do the batches separately and do thorough washing in between, but it's ridiculously expensive to have *two* factories, and I haven't heard of a single chocolatier that does other than enjoy life and possibly tropical source(?) which doesn't use any allergens. (I don't think their chocolate is as good, but I'm rather picky, as you can see by that list. )