What Does "May Contain Milk" Mean?

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