Cocomels Carmel’s

[Jherm21]

Hello I emailed this company about gluten to see if there were cross contamination issues and received this message back.... should I eat these after reading the email? 

 

Thank you so much for reaching out. Yes, our products are gluten-free; however, we do use shared manufacturing equipment with other confectioners. We do an allergy cleaning on the production line before any of our caramels are made but I do need to let you know that other products that may contact eggs, soy, gluten, and nuts are made using the same line.  Here is our official statement on allergens:

 

General Statement about Allergens in Cocomels

If you are sensitive to dairy and other allergens we recommend that you do not try Cocomels due to the risk of potential cross-contamination that is outside of our control.  For an explanation of what we do and why, read on:

As a small company that needs shared production facilities, there are certain aspects of our production that we don’t have complete control over.  As a caramel, the only available caramel making equipment does by definition make traditional caramels when not making Cocomels, and therefore regularly processes dairy, and occasionally other tree nuts, peanuts and soy protein.  Before making Cocomels we perform an “allergen clean” and test the equipment for trace allergens.  As a result, we are quite confident our products are free of these contaminants, but unfortunately cannot guarantee that they are always 100% free of them.

Additionally, our chocolate is sourced as organic, dairy-free, and delicious.  Chocolate manufacturers however also incur the potential for cross-contamination as they produce their dark chocolate on the same equipment that produces milk chocolate.  We confirm they use good procedures between the two types, but again, there is always potential for cross-contamination.

This is a challenge we see as a company producing a caramel made without dairy in the traditional caramel space.  In the future we hope to control our own destiny by managing our own production but at this time it is not economically feasible to do so.      

 

[cyclinglady]

At least there is some awareness.  Personally,  I would rather stick to a larger company if it is on a shared line with good manufacturing cleaning processes.  It sounds like this small company is not in charge and places their trust with their supplier.  

If in doubt, I choose companies who test their end product. This company does not.

Consider making these yourself.  Making Carmel candy is easy though I have not used coconut milk but It should work just fine.