[Leonesse]

This is cross-posted from another web site and dated Nov. 7, 2007.

I contacted the Lindt company when i couldn't get direct information from them off their web site. Lindt chocolate is not gluten free.


"Thank you for your response. Our products are not Gluten free because we use Barley Malt in all of our cocoa for the chocolate. We need our malt in a certain form and broken down using a specific process to adhere to the Lindt’s recipe guidelines. Due to the availability of malt under these standards, Barley Malt is currently our only option.

Our white chocolate products by nature do not contain Malt Barley and are therefore, Gluten free. However, because they are run on the same lines as our other products, there is a chance for cross contamination.

Lindt is aware of the growing awareness of Celiac Disease and other conditions. We are sensitive to the fact that these large groups of consumers are unable to enjoy our chocolate at this time. We hope in the future to be able to accommodate the needs of all our consumers and offer options to satisfy varying dietary requirements.

I have also included the nutritional facts for our 70% and semisweet (bittersweet) bar. They do not have milk in them, however, they are manufactured on the same lines as products that do and may contain cross-contamination traces.

Lindt does not have products suitable for “lactose intolerant people”.

Some of our products do not contain milk in the recipe, but because we use the same manufacturing installations for all of our products, cross contamination can occur.

As a rule, dark chocolate does not contain milk. Concerning milk allergies, where the milk protein is the antigen, we have to tell the customers that dark chocolate could contain traces of milk, because of cross contamination. The “may contain “wording informs the customer of the possibility that the product may contain traces of milk.

Please let me know if you have any further questions. I may be contacted via email or at the phone number below.

Kind Regards,

Liz Lindahl

Consumer Affairs Specialist

603-778-3498

[mushroom]

Leonesse, on Mar 4 2009, 04:12 PM, said:

This is cross-posted from another web site and dated Nov. 7, 2007.

I contacted the Lindt company when i couldn't get direct information from them off their web site. Lindt chocolate is not gluten free.


"Thank you for your response. Our products are not Gluten free because we use Barley Malt in all of our cocoa for the chocolate. We need our malt in a certain form and broken down using a specific process to adhere to the Lindt’s recipe guidelines. Due to the availability of malt under these standards, Barley Malt is currently our only option.

This is absolutely gross. I have been eating Lindt 70% because it contains no soy and does not list barley malt in its ingredients. "Cocoa solids: 70% minimum. Ingredients: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, natural Bourbon vanilla beans. May contain traces of, etc., etc.," NO barley malt!! No, it does not say gluten free, but it certainly does not mention barley malt.

[brigala]

mushroom, on Mar 3 2009, 07:25 PM, said:

This is absolutely gross. I have been eating Lindt 70% because it contains no soy and does not list barley malt in its ingredients. "Cocoa solids: 70% minimum. Ingredients: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, natural Bourbon vanilla beans. May contain traces of, etc., etc.," NO barley malt!! No, it does not say gluten free, but it certainly does not mention barley malt.

Keep in mind that the response from Lindt is from 2007. It's possible that the current 70% bar does not contain malt. I have looked at other Lindt products from time to time (their truffles used to be a favorite of mine) and the labels of the products I've looked at have all clearly stated "barley malt" as an ingredient. I haven't looked at their chocolate bars because I've never really liked them.

I also got a similar response from Lindt when I emailed them back in about 2007 or so. I haven't checked with them again more recently.

-Elizabeth

[mushroom]

brigala, on Mar 4 2009, 04:54 PM, said:

I haven't looked at their chocolate bars because I've never really liked them.

I don't particularly like them either, but they are chocolate! And this one contains no soy (I think?)--one of the few. I will email them again.

[Tallforagirl]

mushroom, on Mar 3 2009, 09:14 PM, said:

I don't particularly like them either, but they are chocolate! And this one contains no soy (I think?)--one of the few. I will email them again.

I don't think the dark chocolate Lindt contains barley malt. At least here in Australia it doesn't. Don't know about the US, but here in Australia if there is an ingredient in the product it must be labelled as such.

[happygirl]

mushroom, on Mar 3 2009, 10:25 PM, said:

This is absolutely gross. I have been eating Lindt 70% because it contains no soy and does not list barley malt in its ingredients. "Cocoa solids: 70% minimum. Ingredients: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, natural Bourbon vanilla beans. May contain traces of, etc., etc.," NO barley malt!! No, it does not say gluten free, but it certainly does not mention barley malt.

Products sold in the USA are probably different than products sold outside of the USA. I would contact the company for specific info regarding where you live.

[GFqueen17]

mushroom, on Mar 3 2009, 10:25 PM, said:

This is absolutely gross. I have been eating Lindt 70% because it contains no soy and does not list barley malt in its ingredients. "Cocoa solids: 70% minimum. Ingredients: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, natural Bourbon vanilla beans. May contain traces of, etc., etc.," NO barley malt!! No, it does not say gluten free, but it certainly does not mention barley malt.

Many, many products contain gluten and do not say so...thats exactly why we get sick so often. I recently checked Lindt's website and it still had the same statement so I would be careful.

[lovegrov]

Lindt hasn't been gluten-free in the U.S. since I was diagnosed 7 years ago. But there are many, many excellent chocolates that are gluten-free.

richard

[mushroom]

lovegrov, on Mar 5 2009, 02:56 PM, said:

But there are many, many excellent chocolates that are gluten-free.
richard

That may be true, but 98.8% them contain soy lecithin as an emulsifier! And I just went to buy my Well Naturally chocolate bar, and they have pulled them from the shelf because some lady claimed she got sick from eating them. What's a gal gotta do to get a chocolate fix???

[mushroom]

Update:

Went to a gluten free expo today; Lindt chocolate was on display and it was confirmed to me (from an official list put out by Lindt) that the 70% dark chocolate we get in New Zealand and OZ is both gluten and soy free (although "may" contain traces of soy, but good enough for me--if it were gluten it would be different since soy just makes me itch). Don't know what you get in the U.S. All the others contained soy however.

I also got some yummy chocolate fudge bars put out by Finn's (NZ).

[tarnalberry]

mushroom, on Mar 4 2009, 09:52 PM, said:

That may be true, but 98.8% them contain soy lecithin as an emulsifier! And I just went to buy my Well Naturally chocolate bar, and they have pulled them from the shelf because some lady claimed she got sick from eating them. What's a gal gotta do to get a chocolate fix???

Theo Chocolate
Michel Cluizel
Castelain

These three don't have soy lecithin. I've found all of them locally, oddly enough, though it'll likely depend on where you live. They're not cheap, but *good* chocolate isn't. (I've always thought of Lindt as a bit waxy... too much lecithin, perhaps...)

[mushroom]

tarnalberry, on May 16 2009, 06:30 PM, said:

Theo Chocolate
Michel Cluizel
Castelain

These three don't have soy lecithin. I've found all of them locally, oddly enough, though it'll likely depend on where you live. They're not cheap, but *good* chocolate isn't. (I've always thought of Lindt as a bit waxy... too much lecithin, perhaps...)

Hey, thanks for those names; I will file them away in my chocolate connoisseur file for next month. Lately I have just been scrounging around in the dumpster for whatever I can find

[Mango04]

mushroom, on Mar 3 2009, 08:25 PM, said:

This is absolutely gross. I have been eating Lindt 70% because it contains no soy and does not list barley malt in its ingredients. "Cocoa solids: 70% minimum. Ingredients: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, natural Bourbon vanilla beans. May contain traces of, etc., etc.," NO barley malt!! No, it does not say gluten free, but it certainly does not mention barley malt.

If you're in New Zealand you should really ignore the US company statements. It's common for seemingly identical products to be completely different in different countries, especially regarding ingredients used and possible gluten. There's a good chance your version is still safe...so worth checking into.