Cadbury Bournville chocolates are a decadent treat for many people. But are they suitable for vegans? While Cadbury cocoa powder is vegan, Cadbury warns that people with milk allergies should not eat Cadbury Bournville chocolate because they are processed in the same plants as products with dairy ingredients.
Cadbury derives all of the fats in its Bournville chocolates from vegetables and plants, but cross-contamination with dairy products is possible. For this reason, you may want to avoid eating Cadbury Bournville dark chocolate bars if you follow a strict vegan diet, especially for allergy-related concerns.
Other Cadbury Bournville chocolate products contain milk powder: Cadbury Bournville Old Jamaica, Cadbury Bournville Orange, and the low-calorie option Bournville Highlights dark chocolate hot chocolate mix.
These products are not vegan, though Cadbury advertises them as vegetarian-friendly.
Does Cadbury Bournville Contain Dairy?
Some Cadbury Bournville products contain milk powder or whey powder derived from milk. Bournville Old Jamaica, Bournville Orange, and Bournville Highlights dark chocolate hot chocolate mix contain dairy.
Cadbury Bournville dark chocolate bars are still vegan. They do not include milk powder or other animal products or byproducts in their recipes.
At the processing plants where the Bournville chocolates are made, there are allergy concerns regarding using dairy products in the other products processed in the same plants.
What’s in the Cadbury Bournville Dark Chocolate Bars?
Cadbury lists sugar, cocoa powder, vegetable fats (such as palm and shea), and soy lecithin. Some sources report a common misconception about the sugar refinement process: they still use bone char as a decolorizing agent.
Most sugar processing plants use high-speed centrifuges to separate the white sugar from the molasses rather than bone char.
The fats Cadbury uses in their Bournville chocolates are all derived from vegetables and plants such as palm and shea. Their emulsifiers are derived from soy, so these products are not safe if you have a soy allergy.
What’s in Cadbury Bournville Old Jamaica?
Bournville Old Jamaica lists sugar, cocoa powder, raisins, skimmed milk powder, and cocoa butter as ingredients. Because skimmed milk powder is an ingredient, Cadbury Bournville Old Jamaica is not vegan.
What about Cadbury Bournville Orange?
The ingredients listed on the Cadbury website are sugar, cocoa butter, orange juice from concentrate, apple puree, pineapple fibers, and soy lecithin. Cadbury Bournville Orange also contains skimmed milk powder.
The Cadbury website indicates that the chocolate bar is suitable for vegetarians but not vegans.
And Cadbury Bournville Fingers?
Cadbury Bournville Fingers are crispy biscuits coated in Cadbury chocolate. These snacks do not list milk powder or dairy products in their ingredients; they list cocoa butter, wheat flour, sugar, and vegetable fats.
However, the allergy warnings include milk as a potential allergen because they are processed in the same plants as products that do include dairy in their recipes.
Is Cadbury Cocoa Powder Vegan?
Cadbury Bournville cocoa powder is vegan. This cocoa powder is great for baking. While some cocoa powders include milk powder in their recipes, Cadbury Bournville does not. Like the other products mentioned in this article, however, there are cross-contamination concerns in the processing plants.
Is Cadbury Bournville Cocoa Vegan?
Cadbury Bournville advertises their cocoa for drinking and baking, but they also include warnings that the cocoa may include milk. The ingredients do not list milk. Preparation instructions and nutritional facts assume you are mixing cocoa powder with 200mL of milk.
The cocoa itself is vegan, but you will need to make some preparation adjustments.
Is Cadbury Bournville Highlights Vegan?
Cadbury Bournville Highlights dark chocolate hot chocolate mix is an excellent healthier option to hot chocolate mix from Cadbury Bournville, but it is not vegan. Ingredients include whey powder from milk, skimmed milk powder, and milk protein.
The preparation instructions assume you will use hot water rather than milk, thus lowering the calorie count.
What Brands of Chocolate Are Vegan?
Some popular brands in Canada that are vegan include Galerie Au Chocolat, ZIMT Chocolate, and Camino. Other brands include Hu, Divine Treasures, Alter Eco, and Chocolove. These chocolates all indicate all or most of their products are vegan friendly.
Some of these brands also feature gluten-free and Kosher options as well.
Are Cadbury Chocolates Fair Trade?
Many vegans are concerned about the ethical sourcing of their chocolate products. Unfortunately, Cadbury lost its Fair Trade certification in 2016. Mondelez, the parent company that owns Cadbury, partnered with Cocoa Life in 2016 to source all of their chocolate products through Cocoa Life by 2025.
Mondelez owns Cocoa Life and promises to listen to cocoa farmers in the Ivory Coast. Cocoa Life advocates for gender equality, the end of child labor, and sustainable farming.
Cocoa Life also advocates for policy change that benefits cocoa farmers and chocolate producers.
Conclusion
Cadbury Bournville is a line of chocolates processed by Cadbury. Some of the products in the Bournville line are vegan, while others include skimmed milk powder, making them unsuitable for vegans.
The vegan products are the Bournville dark chocolate bars, the Bournville Buttons, the Bournville Fingers, the Cadbury Bournville cocoa powder, and cocoa.
The skimmed milk powder products are the Bournville Old Jamaica, the Bournville Orange chocolate bars, and Cadbury Bournville Highlights hot chocolate mix.
These products include allergy warnings that mention milk products as allergens because of possible cross-contamination at the processing plants. For this reason, it may be advisable to avoid Bournville chocolate products if you are vegan for allergy reasons.
There are plenty of vegan and non-vegan options for Cadbury Bournville chocolate products. Though there are allergy concerns to consider, Cadbury Bournville is primarily vegan friendly.
There are other options for vegan chocolates too, if you can’t risk cross-contamination exposure with dairy products.
