MILK POWDER ALERT!!
Waitrose have gone and deprived us of one of our staples for making cheesecakes!
The biscuit shelves in one of the Waitrose stores which I use now carries a label stating that their own digestive biscuits now contain milk!! They’ve changed the recipe. Apparently all new batches have new labels which have whey powder as an ingredient and include milk in the allergens list.
This is a disaster! Now we have no digestive biscuits at all that I can find without milk in them. (Other than food-free gluten-free ones baked with added cement dust.) We’re reduced to either Rich Tea or baking our own again. Why can’t they just leave a good recipe alone? Presumably milk powder is now cheap again, since it all tends to come back to overheads.
BE VERY CAREFUL!
If you have bought any Waitrose Essentials Digestive Biscuits in the last week or two, check the list ingredients very carefully. The label didn’t give a date when the recipe changed, nor did it say how long it had been there so I don’t know when exactly they became toxic. If you are in any doubt, it is always safer not to risk it.
Hello,
What a shame Waitrose changed their recipe! It’s very annoying. I don’t know if you’d be interested but Tesco Value digestives are milk free. I know the quality won’t be anywhere near Waitrose own brand but at least they don’t have milk in, and they are edible, I have bought them in the past for cheesecake bases. They are OK as long as you don’t add too much margarine. All other Tesco own brand digestives (including freefrom) contain milk.
Hope that helps!
Helen
PS Did you ever get my recipe for dairy free cream cheese frosting?
Hello Helen,
Yes indeed I’m glad to hear there is still a source of digestives available! Rich Tea biscuits aren’t really quite as good, so I shall have to go up to Tesco’s and have a look for some. I tend to use Waitrose more primarily because I have to go to the town where they are in any case, whereas Tesco means a 20 minute drive just for that. The inevitable drawback to living in a rural area.
As for your frosting recipe, yes I did get it and yes I am feeling guilty for not having posted it for you. Very sorry! Will put this right this afternoon, with luck.
All the best,
Sian.
Mosti gingernuts seem to be dairy free- and make a more interesting base for cheescake type things anyway. How do you make dairy-free cheescake though? I assume there’s a recipe on here somewhere
You’re right about the gingernuts. I like them for bases too. Children can find them very hard to break up with the old rolling pin technique, but they are also frequently so hard that they can literally blunt a blade in a food processor if you put in large pieces. As for a recipe, we have a lemon vanilla cheesecake recipe on the site which is a baked cheesecake. I’m working on an unbaked cheesecake which is now in its final test stage and should be up soon.
Hi, just been looking at your website, Doves farm do digestive dairy free biscuits- I’m vegan so have checked them out! Not yet tried a cheesecake base but they are great in tiffin! Also if there is a co-op near you they do digestives suitable for vegans…. Hope these suggestions help, best wishes Heather
Hi Heather,
Thanks for your suggestions. There’s a Co-op only 6 miles away, so I’ll visit them and see if I can stock up. I haven’t found the Dove’s Farm ones round here, but I shall keep looking!
Sian.
hi
reading your comments tesco value are no longer dairy free!
do any of you know were we can find some cheap digestive biscuits for a toddler group?
thanks.
Hi Annie,
Thank you for letting us know about Tesco’s biscuits. Yet another one to cross off the list! I shall post this so that other people can find the news easily as well, and I shall update our review page.
I’ve just come from Morrison’s (don’t know whether you have one of them near you), and they have quite a range which are labelled “may contain traces of…” as usual. It depends how careful you need to be with the dairyfreeness of your biscuits. By and large, the labelling is just lawyer-speak for “We cannot prove that no trace of milk has made its way into the mixture and therefore, since we have no intention of being sued, we are covering our backs.” However, if you have someone who is severely, anaphylactically allergic to milk protein, it would not be worth the risk. If you’re avoiding the milk because of lactose intolerance, there isn’t the same degree of risk associated with consuming tiny traces (assuming there might be contamination from the factory) since this isn’t an allergy and, while the gut symptoms are unpleasant, they’re not going to cause anaphylaxis. I’m lactose-intolerant, as is one of my children, and we eat most of the “may contain” biscuits without any repercussions. However, my husband is allergic to milk protein and I always keep his biscuits rigidly milk-free and store them separately from ours.
As for cheap biscuits that are dairy-free, you’re almost always safe with gingernuts and rich tea biscuits. If you want a fairy cheap treat, Bourbon creams (bizarrely I’ve always felt, given they’re a ‘cream’ biscuit) are always milk free. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the ompany making them won’t opt for the lawyer-speak labelling. I’ve found coconut rings at Morrison’s today, so it might be worth looking for other brands of those.
Do check our reviews pages for reviews of lots of different dairy-free biscuits which may give you other ideas.
Good luck and thanks for getting in touch.
Sian.
I’ve just seen this. There is coop! Their own brand are still safe.
Thanks for taking the time to let us know about these. I’ll make sure our review section is up to date. Do drop by again!
Sian
Hi,
co-op no longer have vegan friendly digestives and Doves Farm Digestives are not vegan either, will try. Tesco’ sown later and check the ingredients in case they have changed, just need some for a vegan cheesecake base,
Nice site!
Kind regards
sandy
Hi Sandy,
I’ve gone over to either Rich Tea biscuits or ginger biscuits now, as I can’t find dairy-free digestives anywhere. Thanks for the comment. Hope you enjoy our recipes.
Sian