Another One Bites the Dust

MorningStar Farms Recipe Crumbles are no longer vegan, and now contain eggs and milk.

When I first got an email from a friend about this, I checked the package in my freezer - it appeared to still be vegan. But when I visited the MorningStar Farms site, eggs and milk appeared in the list of ingredients. Just a few days ago, I found that the packages in my supermarket now show the new, non-vegan list of ingredients.

This is very disappointing from a company that caters to vegans and vegetarians. Several of their products are vegan, and at least one has the word "vegan" in the name of the product.

MorningStar Farms is taking a big step backwards, and away from their target audience. What are they expecting to gain by losing vegan customers? It's also disappointing to see that the change in their recipe is not obvious from the front of the package. I'm sure some vegans will continue to buy them, unaware of the change in ingredients. The spokesperson for Kelloggs (which owns Morningstar Farms) was not immediately available for comment. But see addendum below.

What are the alternatives? Of course vegans do not need foods that mimic meat, and with all of the processing and sodium, they're not very healthy. But they can be a fun addition to a meal, and they are tasty. That said, Yves Meatless Ground Round is vegan. Boca Ground Crumbles are also vegan, and Boca has vowed to make all of their products egg-free by the end of 2009, thanks to a campaign by Compassion Over Killing.

MorningStar Farms Recipe Crumbles now goes into the formerly-vegan graveyard, alongside Hershey's Special Dark chocolate bars (now contain dairy), Nestle's Sno-Caps (now contain dairy) and Burger King's BK Veggie Burger (now contains eggs and dairy).

© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com, Inc.

Addendum: After this blog post was published, I received the following response from a spokesperson for MorningStar Farms:

The change in classification for the MorningStar Farms Crumbles to vegetarian was the result of a change in our manufacturing process. We apologize to anyone who might be inconvenienced by this change. As you noted in your article, we still offer several vegan products, and information about them can be found here.

Suggested Reading:

• What is Veganism?
• Milk and the Veal Connection
• What's Wrong with Cage-Free Eggs?
• What's Wrong with Grass-Fed Beef?

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