Chocolate chips are often found in many desserts, such as cakes, muffins, cookies, and even on breakfast dishes such as pancakes and waffles. They are ubiquitous, which is why most vegans often want to know if it’s safe for them. But are chocolate chips vegan?
Yes, some chocolate chips are vegan friendly, while some are not. For instance, dark chocolates are considered vegan, whereas milk chocolates are not vegan. Any chocolate derived from milk, such as whey, casein, milk fat, and milk solids, is generally non-vegan.
In this article, we will look at the different types of chocolate chips, Hershey chocolate chips, lily’s chocolate chips, semi sweet chocolate chips, and how to know if the chocolate chips you’re buying are vegan or not.
Let’s get started!
Types of Chocolate Chips
While the community of chocolate is prosperous and massive, every other chocolate you can find out there fall into one of these three classifications:
Dark Chocolate
Having a huge proportion of cocoa, dark chocolate is an intense, elegant event. It is also the healthiest and most vegan-friendly alternative out there because of its increased assemblage of antioxidants, low amount of sugar, and absence of dairy.
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Milk Chocolate
Milk chocolate is an assortment of cocoa solids, milk derivatives, and sugar. Unless there is a distinct expression on the container, noting that it is plant-based milk that is employed, this chocolate alternative is hardly vegan-friendly.
White Chocolate
Despite its inscription as “white chocolate” when considered critically, it isn’t technically a “chocolate” at all because it doesn’t include cocoa solids. White chocolate also occasionally includes dairy products, so be certain to examine the inscription.
Is Hershey chocolate chips vegan?
No, Hershey chocolate chips are not suitable for vegans. Unlike most dark chocolate chips, Hershey’s chocolate chips have Milkfat and Milk content, so they’re not dairy-free.
Are Lily’s chocolate chips vegan?
Yes, Lily’s 55% dark chocolate chips are suitable for vegans! They are also sugar-free and gluten-free. Lily’s % dark chocolate chips are sweetened using non-GMO stevia and erythritol, making them an ideal option if you want to avoid a sugar rush.
Are Ghirardelli chocolate chips vegan?
Yes, Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Chips have been a favorite vegan treat for a long time. However, the company recently added “whole milk powder” to its ingredients. The original dairy-free chocolate chips are gradually vanishing from grocery store shelves.
Are semi sweet chocolate chips vegan?
Some semi sweet chocolate chips are considered vegan-friendly, while some are not. By semi chocolate, it means that the chocolate has no less than 35% chocolate liquor (by weight) per FDA requirement.
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How Would I Know If My Chocolate Chips Are Vegan or Not?
Dairy products can pose under all sorts of clever titles. Added to their search for “milk,” vegans should select another chocolate if any or probably all of these words show in the ingredient table.
- Whey, casein, or lactose – are all by-products gotten from milk.
- “Contains milk” contained in the allergen declaration.
- Cholesterol level higher than 0% because cholesterol can only be found in animal commodities.
The major element you’d want to check for is any kind of milk product, such as condensed milk or milk powder.
Milk chocolate generally includes milk powder, which isn’t vegan, but then, a lot of dark chocolate is vegan. And there is even vegan chocolate that tastes a lot like milk chocolate now because of a volume of vegan “milk” properties.
Another element to look out for when checking for vegan chocolate is sugar.
Cane sugar is occasionally purified with bone char. Unfortunately, several companies that employ cane sugar in making their products cannot even ascertain whether or not the sugar that they used is filtered with bone char.
The question playing out in your mind now would be, what is bone char, right?
Bone char, popularly recognized as “natural carbon,” is a byproduct of the bones of cattle from Afghanistan, Argentina, India, and Pakistan.
These cow’s bones are marketed and traded as bone char to sugar factories all over the world to refine sugar.
Sugar factories all over the world utilize bone char in processing sugar and also refining it because it functions as a decolorizing filter for sugarcane to obtain the intended white-colored sugar.
This implies that there are numerous products on the market today that include this category of sugar, from cosmetics to food that might not be vegan-friendly.
Another option is to keep off all improved sugars, which are not mostly vegan but often include more nutritious significance than filtered sugar. Some varieties of this natural sugar are coconut sugar, fruit sugar, and date sugar.
There are also natural sweeteners that are vegan-friendly, such as maple syrup, agave nectar, unsulfured molasses, and brown rice syrup.
Note, though, that not all naturally unfiltered sweeteners are vegan, such as honey, which for a lot of reasons are not assumed to be vegan-friendly.
This comes to be a grey region, and many vegans prefer to consume commodities with sugar even if the way it was purified is uncertain. Well, that is entirely up to you.
Dark chocolate is solely created by blending cocoa beans with cocoa butter and/or chocolate liquor rather than dairy products, rendering it 100% adequate for vegans!
A limited number of brands comprise whey, butter, or milk in their recipes, so it’s always good to double-check the components.
True dark and semi-sweet chocolates are formulated with a basis of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, and sugar. Although cocoa butter gives the feel of a dairy element, it is the fatty category of the cacao bean. It is typically dairy-free.
Nonetheless, a lot of other varieties are not purely chocolate, and rather, they have milk added, mostly in the manner of butter oil, milk fat, milk solids, or milk powder.
These elements are apparent in milk chocolate.
But they also locate their way into many varieties of semi-sweet and dark chocolate. Be cautious enough to always study the components on the container.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I use in place of chocolate chips?
There are different things you can use in place of chocolate chips, including:
- Butterscotch chips
- Sweetened carob chips
- Cocoa nibs
- Vanilla chips
Can I use chopped chocolate instead of chocolate chips?
Yes, of course. You can just cut up chocolate chips if that’s what you have.
Can I use baking chocolate instead of chocolate chips?
Yes, you can. You can use one ounce of semi-sweet baking chocolate, or one ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate, and also one Tablespoon of sugar.
Why does chocolate chips not melt?
Chocolate chips are made to conserve their shape; they comprise less cocoa butter than those chocolatey items.
Can I use dark chocolate instead of chocolate chips?
Yes, you can. It is perfectly fine if you do so.
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Conclusion: Are Chocolate Chips Vegan?
Are chocolate chips vegan? The answer is in two ways, they are, and they are not.
Lots of labels of chocolate are in danger for cross-contamination because their dark chocolate is inclined to be manufactured on the exact shafts as milk chocolate.
So, there is always that lingering danger. Those with dairy allergies have to make a further effort to verify the allergen statement.