Labels that say things like: ”may contain milk” cause a lot of confusion for new Vegans Just to give some context to the concept of ”may contain”, until the 1980s products could contain allergens like nuts but as long as they were made of less than 5% of the product, the company could hide them without stating it on the packaging By the 1990s regular has made food companies declare the presence of peanuts and then all other allergens Following this ”may contain” labeling was introduced for products that are at risk of cross contamination As an example, a processing line might produce both chocolate coated peanuts and chocolate coated raisins While it will be cleaned between making the different ones, there is a possibility of traces of peanut material being present in the packs of chocolate covered raisins Due to situations when people have had severe allergic reactions to traces of certain allergens, there have been companies getting sued The ”may contain” label has become vague and overused The reason why most processed products have a number of many ”may contain” ingredients is because manufacturers are just covering themselves legally In most cases this ”may contain” means: ”Produced in a facility also handling or produced on equipment also handling something like milk or eggs or fish For a lot of Vegans the idea of their food touching dead flesh, salmonella in eggs and pus filled cow secretions is disgusting and we discourage them from eating it But the machinery is usually thoroughly washed before making the Vegan products And these products are very unlikely to contain any milk, eggs or fish at all But when you put it into perspective, these products are still Vegan When you see it from the animal's point of view, being fussy doesn't help end the injustice You're not supporting the dairy industry when you buy something that ”may contain” milk So there should never be an ethical objection If you have a severe allergy to ingredients like dairy and eggs, be mindful of the cross contamination, but for majority of Vegans, ”may” is ok