Does this make me not vegan?

Question

I dont eat ANYTHING with meat or eggs or milk (I read the ingredient labals) but I reccently got a different brand of hamburger buns and (after reading the ingredent label, then putting a [vegan, meatless] BOCA burger on the roll and eating it) I read the allergy warnings and it said it might contain milk due to shared equipptment. Does this make me not vegan? Please be honest! I feel really quilty!

Thanks :]

Answer 1

Of course your still a vegan. Its not like you knew. But try finding different hamburger buns and check both the labels and the allergy warnings. It happens. Dont feel guilty. You did nothing wrong.

Answer 2

C'mon peeps.  Vegan, vegetarian, lacto-veg, raw.  No one is going to knock on your door and take your merit badge away.  It's all just a way to describe a lifestyle choice.  You didn't know that your buns might have small trace amounts of milk from possible shared equipment.  Don't punish yourself!  It's incredibly difficult, in the anti-veg world, to be completely on top of this all of the time without ever slipping up.  Unless you plan on starting your own personal commune with all vegan-all the time home cooked meals made with vegetables and grain grown and harvested on site...well, you'd better find a small place in your heart that is ready for self-forgiveness in these moments of oversight.  

But, no....no one is going to say your not vegan.  And, honestly...who would care if they did?  You still know, in your heart of hearts, that you have committed to a vegan life.  Be proud of that.

Answer 3

I hardly think that any minor contamination of equipment and unintended ingestion on your part disqualifies you.  It's the intent that counts and you're doing everything in your power to be vegan. The food processing industry obviously can't afford to have separate equipment for vegans vs. non.

However, if you really want to make a difference in the world, eat less processed food, lots of fresh veggies, minimum stuff that's gone thru a factory to get to your table.

Answer 4

I don't stress over the "may contain traces" disclaimer.  If the ingredient list is vegan, I consider the food to be vegan.

Don't worry yourself, babe.

Answer 5

Your a vegan.  :)

They have to put those warnings on packages where they share equipment as a legal disclaimer for those that are sensitive to dairy.  They clean the equipment totally between changes - but that doesn't mean that someone MIGHT have missed something in the cleaning - mistakes happen.

So more than likely you got no milk at all.  Just that they have to warn you that there is a slim possibility that you MIGHT be exposed - humans do make errors.

I wouldn't worry about it, no reason to feel guilty.  But if it really bothers you - make sure to not buy that brand next time and to really read the labels.

Reading labels has to be second nature to you when you make a commitment to eating vegetarian/vegan.

Answer 6

No, you're a vegan.  Read the actual ingredients, not the "it may have" stuff.  The reason they have to put that on there is because there is a 0.00000000000000001% chance that someone who is allergic to milk will have some sort of allergic reaction and then complain that they weren't warned.  This is just the company's way of covering their a$$ so they don't get sued.

Answer 7

yes you still are a vegan it MAY be shared on equiptment but chances are they are a clean company and dont put everything together.

and it was a mistake.

dont worry your doing a good thing.

Answer 8

I agree with one of the answerers.  I am a vegan and if the ingredients are vegan then I don't worry about it saying that it may contain milk.  It doesn't but they are just covering their butts just incase there was cross contamination.  It is intended for people who have milk allergies.

Answer 9

Dont worry you're still a vegan it was a genuine mistake

Answer 10

no, it was a mistake.

Answer 11

You're still vegan since the boca burgers have animal products in the ingredients. It's like saying that the burger was prepared on a cutting board that also touched hamburgers. Eating the veggie burgers won't increase the demand for meat or otherwise contribute to animal suffering.

Answer 12

The shared equipment warning is there for allergy sufferers, who would suffer from even small amounts of accidental cross-contamination.  Veganism is not a quest for personal purity; you're making yourself heard by buying an otherwise vegan product, which raises market demand for them.  While your hamburger buns are "accidentally vegan," there are lots of small companies making vegan goods who are forced to share factory space so they can afford to bring their products to market.  Personally I would rather risk a microgram of milk than send the message that those products don't have a place.  I don't think the shared equipment warning renders a product un-vegan at all.

Answer 13

you didnt know...it was a mistake.

you still have your beliefs on why your a vegan and thats ALL that matters.

your still a vegan.

Answer 14

You MAY or MAY NOT be Vegan.

Answer 15

empesis on the MIGHT. if u didn't know its not your fault

check the allergy warnings first in the future:)

dont feel guilty

wasnt your fault

its honnourable for you 2 give up dairy

i could never do it

well i could but id need to ween myself off a milk addiction:S

good luck for the future

Answer 16

Your vegan.  It was an accident, and even if it wasn't, It's an allergy warning they put on there so that they cant get sued if there is a fluke accident.

Answer 17

No, it doesn't make you un-vegan. If that was a requirement of veganism, it would be nearly impossible. They list those things for people with severe allergies who can be affected if something they ate touched something used to make something they're allergic to (wow, that's confusing!!). Veganism is about reducing animal suffering, not being "pure". I think PETA puts it best, to be honest.

"While PETA supports a strict adherence to veganism, we put the task of vigorously reducing animal suffering ahead of personal purity. Boycotting products that are 99.9 percent vegan sends manufacturers the message that there is no market for that particular food, which ends up hurting more animals."

Don't worry yourself over this. If it says "CONTAINS: MILK" (or eggs), then it's not vegan. But if it says something about how the product was manufactured in a plant that uses milk, eggs, whatever, it still is.