*whew* I am glad I bake my own darned cookies.

Wow, this just goes to show that my opinion that some vegans are religious fanatics; not that there's anything wrong with that.
Kosher is a religious choice as well, and there may also be some health benefits linked to eating kosher food, but the onus on ensuring that the standards are kept falls on a private or religious organization. Truth in labeling can be investigated by the courts, but the final arbiter of that standard is not government. If vegans choose, they can set up their own standard and hire Hindu monks as inspectors.
I want suppliers and manufacturers to make better products, but vilifying someone for not researching their suppliers to the last molecule is the best way to drive companies away from the natural food market. Have faith, or grow your own vanilla orchids and sugar cane.

This article lowers the rest of the treehugger to that of a magazine style newspapers "letters to the editor" section. The cookie maker is trying to do the right thing and an uniformed writer is talking about things which he or she knows little about. It is sad that treehugger lets such an inexperienced writer post.

Bravo to NMK for answering the questions. I don't like the artificial vanillin, but on the scale of things I might complain about in this world that ranks pretty close to zero.

This is why I make all of my own baked goods. That and an allergy to artificial preservatives. :-D

Thanks Christine - for writing such an informative and diplomatic article.
I'm impressed.

And for those that have followed this thread - I always love how good things come out of "weird" things.
Since this whole issue came about - our chocolate chip supplier has located a chip for us that is dairy,egg, nut & peanut free, kosher parve, does not use animal bone char, AND contains pure vanilla extract.
So what does that leave us with? A mighty fine chip.

Isn't it strange that we focus more on what ISN'T in our food than what IS??

Kudos to all of you doing your own baking. It's a tradition that must stay alive.

Thanks!
Eden
New Moon Kitchen Inc.

I wrote the original post (http://almostvegetarian.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-moon-kitchen-cookies-contain.html) and I am, to use a word I am told the owner of New Moon Kitchen said when she learned of the vanillin, “horrified.”

New Moon Kitchen doesn’t list these ingredients on fully half their cookies. Not only is that deceptive, but according to the Canadian Food and Drugs Act, it is illegal.

New Moon Kitchen cookies are promoted to vegans even though they are made with refined sugar. Seen any vegans lugging a 5 lb bag of refined sugar home lately? I haven’t.

New Moon Kitchen says their sugar is not refined with bone char. What they don’t say is that the manufacturer of that sugar includes bone char as one of their refining methods. Do we want to support any bone char use?

New Moon Kitchen says they are “totally natural” even though they admit one of their hidden ingredients, vanillin, “. . . is an artificial vanilla flavor . . .” Yuck.

And what does New Moon Kitchen say to excuse all this? Eden, the owner, said she “. . . give no claim on perfection.”

I am posting an update to this tomorrow at www.almostvegetarian.com.

The reply by AV is classic! They could not just admit that they were wrong, instead they attacked someone who is clearly doing her best to provide, what I can assume is, a quality product.

Why did AV request samples (note the number of cookies that they ate before realizing how horrible they are) of a product that they could have investigated beforehand? Did they just want to eat a load of free cookies? If I was a producer, I would never send a product to AV (and I hope that a lot of producers hear about this and stop sending products to them for review).

Remember, as your mother always told you, treat others has you would like to be treated.

Yeah, I'll just keep eating my oreos and try not to worry too much about hidden ingredients, and just keep bugging the cookie companies to move to organic options if they can. ^^

Kudos to New Moon for making such great cookies though. :)

It seems to me that people much of the fears regarding synthetic chemicals are born of ignorance (ignorance - not stupidity). Yes, natural vanilla extract contains other compounds in addition to vanillin, but the vanillin that it does contain is chemically identical to that which is synthesized in the lab.

A chemical is a chemical is a chemical. If it is identical at the molecular level, the manner in which it is produced is irrelevant to your body. It may be relevant to your ethics, but you should really be asking yourself whether it is the right way to be framing the issue - using natural vanilla means expensive harvesting and refinement of a relatively scarce plant. Is that preferable to a simple chemical synthesis using abundant and inexpensive inputs? If you can distinguish the difference between the two and are willing to pay a significant premium for it, then that's neither here nor there - it merely shows that you have the affluence to become very passionate about your packaged baked goods. But before you let overriding dogma steer you thinking, try and look at the big picture.

The cookie chemical debate here is really just a microcosm, though. On the whole, there is no easy answer in sustainability. It encompasses everything. Now, more than ever before, there is no black and white. Green is grey.

And really, after reading the blog post on Almost Vegetarian that spurred this fiasco, I think that kind of overreaction is just reprehensible. It was just a vitriolic smear-fest on a company that is trying to provide a more positive alternative. If you'd offered up the commentary in a sensible, constructive manner, I'm sure the inevitable result that has come about (chips sans bone char and synthetic vanillin) would be the same, but with a lot fewer hurt feelings.

It also makes me realize that while I'm a vegetarian, I have no interest being a vegan if it means consorting with people like that. Should a ferocity surrounding nebulous degrees of animal rights preclude even the most basic of courtesy for your fellow man? For shame.

Thanks for this article! I found it very thoughtful and fair. I often look into companies before I purchase anything to weigh out what is going on there and where exactly my money is going.

That being said, I have a few things to add, especially to the Almost Veg commenter:

New Moon stated that they found chocolate chips without vanillin, so isn't that matter solved?

I would think that the fact that they themselves are not using the bone char method might be as far as they can go considering the nut and peanut allergens they must avoid.

How do you know the company they use is in fact using the bone char filters? How much of it actually goes on in that company? Although these things may not matter to you Almost Veg, they matter to me. I have a serious nut allergy and finding any sort of baked goods is almost impossible.

I would like to support good companies that don’t use any bone char, and New Moon made a point to not use bone char in their cookies, which is really all I would ask of them. New Moon Kitchen is doing a fantastic job of making something available not only to vegans, but people who have multiple allergies as well.

Wow, some people really do live in glass houses. This person from the AV blog has worked for IBM, Visa and HBO. In other words, they've worked for some of the most environmentally damaging companies around while presenting themselves as some sort of arbiter of ethics. (Don't you just hate it when people nitpick peoples efforts to do the right thing?)

Like other's have said, AV could have made their point in a much less hostile manner. We should patronize businesses that are trying their best to do the right thing and provide constructive feedback, not try to nitpick/slander them out of business.

Although there is some good for me to come out of this:
1) I learned something about refined sugar that I didn't know before and will try to buy raw sugar from now on
2) I'm going to seek out NMK cookies!

to almost vegetarian - it's disappointing to see that your motivation for traffic to your site overtook your motivation to ensure good food products. when are you going to stop acting like a child?

to New Moon - kudos to you for handling a PR crises with class and honesty. Now, you have some great press and great chocolate chips!

to Treehugger - good for you for covering this story. when i read what was going on at AV I was saddened. That turned to being PISSED OFF when I found out that AV was NOT posting all comments (they weren't mean, just fair).

z

Something struck me about this...even with all the hot air from new moon kitchen and the commenters, the facts seem to be that the ingredient label was missing ingredients that had white sugar and vanillin in them. Right? Seems to me like these comments are filled with lots of strawman argument -- its hiding the facts.

The hobby blogger said no vegan would eat white sugar if they knew it was in a food, and if you know enough of these people (I live in Los Angeles) you know that’s true. Some of these people won't even watch cartoons where animals get hurt! Anyway, the blogger also said it was wrong for the food manufacturer to promote the cookies as “totally-natural” when they had synthetic vanillin and that is obviously true too.

Those are facts, and I don’t see why anyone would want to side with a company making money by not being scrupulous about the stuff they use (if I made things people ate you bet I would want to know what was in everything -- wouldn't you? Think of your kids). The AV blogger was industrious enough to find the gaffes and conscientious enough to write about them. It's the kind of responsible thing we need bloggers to do since our media is failing us!

I’ll side with the little, honest, smart blogger over the sloppy food manufacturer any day.

Wow - I don't know who is in charge of writing this treehugger blog, but it makes me think for sure that this person is doing more harm in the world than good with their irresponsible fanaticism.
If you really were doing this research for the honest intentions of knowing where your food comes from, wouldn't you have contacted the owner of New Moon Kitchen directly, before writing such an aggressive post? In the end, the ingredients in question were fine, and good for Eden for handling it with such grace, but hopefully you learned a lesson -- do your research. Oh, and stop complaining. Sorry to say, but it's people like you who make vegans so unbearable. Be thankful for what you have.

I have worked in the food manufacturing industry for the past 6 years and have learned a thing or two about CFIA regulations.

AV stated that NMK is breaking the law by not listing the ingredients OF ingredients. THIS IS NOT TRUE. There are a number of ingredients which are exempt from this component declaration regulation. Sugar and vanillin fall under sweetening and flavouring agents, both of which do not need to be listed when used as components of other ingredients.

I suggest AV do some research before dragging a company's name through the mud.

@sje
Thanks for that input. Readers clearly are animated on this topic: but your input highlights exactly why I picked up this piece from AV and shared the inside story of NMK's struggle to deal with the allegations. At the core of the story is this question: how do we, as consumers, get the information we need to make good decisions. Your input confirms a critical point: we cannot rely on the government. Transparency to the consumer is essential (balanced carefully, of course, with the essential need of businesses to protect their "secret recipes"!)

If you have a reference to the laws exempting sugars and flavors, I am sure TreeHugger readers would appreciate it!

David and Goliath with hobby blogger Almost Vegetarian versus corporation New Moon Kitchen, Inc. who hide ingredients refined white sugar and chemical vanillin that no vegan would knwingly ever eat and AV reports on it and NMK drags out the PR machine and dumps misleading comments when they can’t debate the facts.

I hate money-grubbing corporations like New moon Kitchen Incorporation that use healthy and natural to make a profit when they don’t deny they are using refined this and chemical that and hiding them.

At least you know to watch out for the McDonalds of this world. Its worse when you find out you can’t even trust a corporation like new moon kitchen that is supposed to be one of the good guys.