NOOOOOOOO!!!! Trader Joe's Chips Going Dairy

saw50st8

Thu, May 17 2012, 4:11 pm

If the problem has already occurred, then you really shouldn't be using bags of them as pareve. They are already d just mislabled.

PinkFridge

Thu, May 17 2012, 5:10 pm

What do non-kosher eating, seriously lactose unfriendly people who live in the sticks do? They have to be as careful.

Our local kosher store, probably cashing in, had their 10 oz. bags of Mishpacha chips nicely priced. No product placement here but I have to say, quite decent!

ganizzy

Thu, May 17 2012, 5:44 pm

trader joes choc chips was the only company where u could actually melt the choc without it burning or turning clumpy.

from what I heard - the choc chips are still pareve - they r changing the cleaning on the packaging machine. tj is writing may contain traces of dairy bec of allergies. so hechsher is saying , well then same for kosher, may be milchig.

so if tj switches to another hechsher that doesnt consider this specific DE to actually be Dairy then...

I went to a store today and they were out. a worker told me that someone had bought $130 worth of choc chips

Rubber Ducky

Thu, May 17 2012, 8:35 pm

And I only bought $90 worth...

ceo

Thu, May 17 2012, 9:16 pm

Raisin wrote:

the issue is is that the factory switched cleaning methods in between runs. Before it was a wet clean, which kashered the belt. Now they are dry cleaning, so it is not kashered. And they use the same machine for dairy and pareve.

at TJ customer service, they said this chnage happened 2 years ago. so why is the OK changing its policy now?

imasinger

Thu, May 17 2012, 10:37 pm

ceo wrote:

Raisin wrote:

at TJ customer service, they said this chnage happened 2 years ago. so why is the OK changing its policy now?

It sounds from the article below as if it had to do with the OK's reaction to the FDA statement. All that process may have taken time. If that is indeed the case, I wonder about what I have already done during the past 2 years. I guess until this is clarified, I won't go out and stock up.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/l.....0517/

Trader Joe’s comes up against some tough cookies

By Julie Gruenbaum Fax

Ilana Blitzstein, who runs a home bakery, stocked up bags of Trader Joe's chocolate chips, which are about to go from pareve to dairy. Photos by Ilana Blitzstein

Ilana Blitzstein, who runs a home bakery, stocked up bags of Trader Joe's chocolate chips, which are about to go from pareve to dairy.

Trader Joe’s got slammed Wednesday and Thursday by a combination of hysteria and hoarding by kosher bakers when word leaked out that its semi-sweet chocolate chips were going from pareve to dairy.

“It’s just really sad,” said Shana Fishman, a Beverlywood mother of four of who bought 20 bags of chocolate chips at Trader Joe’s in West Hollywood on Wednesday. “It means that I’ll have to use bitter chocolate chips in my cookies, and it means that I’ll have to pay more for my chocolate chips. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if the kosher brand chocolate chips were better.”

Trader Joe’s semi-sweet chocolate chips are widely recognized as the best non-dairy chocolate chips on the market. Until now they have borne an “OK pareve” designation, essential for kosher consumers who do not eat meat and dairy products in the same meal. But the supplier for Trader Joe’s has changed its production procedure, and the chips will now be designated as dairy by Brooklyn-based OK-Kosher Certification.

“OK-Kosher is fully aware of the tremendous concern this change has caused consumers and we are working with the manufacturer to find possible solutions. If the status should revert to pareve at some time in the future, the public will be notified,” a statement from OK read.

Trader Joe’s released a statement defending its chocolate chips.

“The ingredients used in our semi-sweet chocolate chips have not changed, there are no dairy ingredients in the item, and the chips are made on equipment dedicated to non-dairy chocolate,” Trader Joe’s wrote in a statement.

Only the bagging process changed, the statement said. The chips are bagged on machinery that also bags milk chocolate chips, and the supplier recently switched from a wet to a dry cleaning regimen on the bagging machine. “These changes … triggered the need for an FDA regulated, dairy-related allergen statement, and this in turn brought about a change in the Kosher certification for our item—going from ‘Kosher Parve’ to ‘Kosher Dairy,’” the statement read.

An officer at OK Kosher Certification said supervising rabbis can no longer guarantee that there are no errant milk chocolate chips in the semi-sweet bags, so the packages will bear a dairy designation.

“Currently, the monitoring of the level of separation between pareve and dairy is no longer sufficient to meet the requirements of OK Pareve. Therefore according to OK standards, we cannot guarantee the pareve status,” the OK statement read.

As the news leaked out through mournful Facebook posts, kosher bakers flooded Trader Joe’s with an unprecedented barrage of calls and emails begging them to revert to the pareve designation, according to Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz, director of the Kosher Information Bureau.

Consumers also made a wild run on chocolate chips Wednesday.

Markets reported that consumers were buying 20, 80,even 170 bags at a time, stocking up on enough bittersweet morsels to take them through the next few months worth of cookies, chocolate chip challah and blondies.

While many so-called “heimische” brands – Jewish companies that make only kosher foods—produce pareve chocolate chips, those chips are generally waxy and flavorless. The silky, rich Trader Joe’s morsels melt to perfect consistency in cookies and taste like actual chocolate. They are good enough to almost make up for the fact that kosher bakers have to forego real butter in cookies they serve after a Shabbat lunch of grilled chicken, roasted vegetables and quinoa salad.

“I personally don’t like the kosher brands. I don’t think they taste as good – they have a weird aftertaste,” said Ilana Blitzstein, who sells baked goods from her home. She stocked up on about 50 bags of Trader Joe’s chocolate chips before she left for a trip on Wednesday night, but she still has friends in L.A. and San Diego scouting stores that might have more chocolate chips.

“I like to use high quality ingredients. It affects the quality of what you’re eating, and I haven’t found anything comparable taste-wise and price-wise,” Blitzstein said.

Chocolate manufacturing requires cocoa butter and cocoa, but those are expensive ingredients when not purchased in massive volumes, and small kosher brands know their consumers aren’t willing to pay what it would cost to produce premium chocolate chips, Eidlitz said. So most heimische brands use fillers and synthetic flavorings, and rely on the fact that they have a captive audience.

“They’re making inferior chocolate,” Eidlitz said. “They often can’t even legally call it chocolate. It’s ‘chocolate flavored.’ ”

Some consumers were hoping the Trader Joe’s chips would be designated as DE, which stands for dairy equipment, signifying that the chips were manufactured on equipment also used for dairy. DE products cannot be eaten with meat, but can be eaten immediately after, without the usual 3-6 hour waiting period.

But OK said the chips have to be considered actually dairy, since milk chocolate chips could end up in the bags.

But Eidlitz is holding out hope. In 2006 Duncan Hines cake mixes went dairy, and consumer blowback brought the pareve label back. Same with Stella D’oro cookies, which in 2003 nixed a plan to switch to dairy after a kosher outcry.

A spokesman at the OK said the story is not over.

“We are working to rectify this issue with the manufacturer and hopefully we will have good news soon,” the OK officer said. “But right now its in their hands to revert back to what they were doing till now.”

Late Thursday, Trader Joe’s issued the following glimmer of hope: “We are evaluating our options and although we cannot guarantee a specific outcome at this time, we realize that for some of our customers this is an important issue.”

hadasa

Fri, May 18 2012, 12:13 am

It's not quite clear to me whether the change happening now is in the process or just in the labeling. If the change in the process occurred a while ago, and what is happening now is just the labeling, them what's the point of stocking up?
(purely theoretical question for me. I have a boxful of fake chocolate chips in my pantry. The good thing about them is that I'm not even tempted to nosh on them, they're so tasteless, but in baking they're good enough for me.)

granolamom

Fri, May 18 2012, 12:29 am

I was starting to panic until I remembered that I'm vegetarian. whew. I can have my chocolate and eat it too.

but for the sake of my shabbos guests who will now be subjected to inferior chips in the cookies, I signed the facebook petition. and contacted TJ directly.

(maybe we should also petition lieber's and bloom's to put real ingredients in the chips, I'd pay more for better quality/taste)

beckster

Fri, May 18 2012, 12:31 am

Enjoy Life makes dairy free choco chips
http://www.meijer.com/s/enjoy-.....ocery

granolamom

Fri, May 18 2012, 12:43 am

beckster wrote:

Enjoy Life makes dairy free choco chips
http://www.meijer.com/s/enjoy-.....ocery

are they good? do they melt well?

saweetie

Fri, May 18 2012, 4:26 am

Raisin wrote:

Tova wrote:

For accuracy's sake, they are actually not becoming dairy (ie - ingredient formula won't change) but the production will be run on dairy equipment instead of a special dairy-free line. Practically it may still mean that you can't use them for your Shabbos desserts, but it's probably good idea to address this in correspondence w/ the company.

people who eat only cy cannot use them at all now.

You must be lubavich. Only Lubavich dont eat off of cholov stam kailim. Most people say it's fine.

saweetie

Fri, May 18 2012, 4:26 am

Raisin wrote:

Tova wrote:

people who eat only cy cannot use them at all now.

You must be lubavich. Only Lubavich dont eat off of cholov stam kailim. Most people say it's fine.

Tova

Fri, May 18 2012, 7:25 am

saw50st8 wrote:

If the problem has already occurred, then you really shouldn't be using bags of them as pareve. They are already d just mislabled.

As I reliable kashrus agency, if this was the case I cannot IMAGINE that the O-K would not issue statements that said - "effective immediately all of these products, even if marked pareve, should be considered dairy."

Fri, May 18 2012, 7:31 am

I don't eat parve from non-cy dishes either, and I'm not a bit lubavitch!

PinkFridge

Fri, May 18 2012, 8:07 am

Sorry, no time to comment. Gotta go grill the chicken, roast the veggies and make some quinoa. (Wish [we] all could be California girls....)

Rubber Ducky

Tue, May 22 2012, 1:50 pm

We need a chocolate chip asifah.

Here is a link to an interview with the OK mashgiach of the chocolate chips: Voz Iz Neias: TJ Chocolate Chip Mashgiach Speaks!

PinkFridge

Tue, May 22 2012, 4:37 pm

kb wrote:

I don't eat parve from non-cy dishes either, and I'm not a bit lubavitch!

And I keep my baking stuff - pans, molds, etc. - pareve.

beckster

Wed, May 23 2012, 12:43 am

granolamom wrote:

beckster wrote:

Enjoy Life makes dairy free choco chips
http://www.meijer.com/s/enjoy-.....ocery

are they good? do they melt well?

Yes I've melted them in the past and IIRC it worked well

hadasa

Wed, May 23 2012, 5:18 am

Rubber Ducky wrote:

We need a chocolate chip asifah.

Here is a link to an interview with the OK mashgiach of the chocolate chips: Voz Iz Neias: TJ Chocolate Chip Mashgiach Speaks!

Interesting. So it's not so much that the Pareve status has actually changed, it's that once they put "may contain dairy on the packaging", the company is no longer responsible to keep the lines separate and the Pareve status can no longer be relied upon.

chizuk

Wed, May 23 2012, 5:23 am

if only we reacted the same way to hashems wake up calls and the tzaros of klal yisroel, its chocolate chips for goodness sake, there are other brands. use our koach to daven to end this galus instead of fighting trader joe company. get our priorities straight!