By Diet

Many millions of people around the world have dietary requirements, be them due to health issues such as nut free, lactose-intolerant, diabetics; but there are also people that choose to restrict their diet out of choice such as vegetarians, vegans (of course some may have health reasons too) or those who follow a religion that forbids the consumption of certain foods. What I’ve done below is to come up with all the different dietary restrictions people may have when they’re looking to buy Easter eggs and try and find some suitable chocolate for them.

This list can never be 100% complete, so if you have a dietary requirement not listed below, please let me know.

Of course, one of the most popular dietary restrictions is that of people who choose not to consume any milk-based products. Of course, this really does restrict their consumption of milk chocolate Easter eggs – although I’m looking for more eggs that have a similar flavour and consistency of those eggs but don’t actually contain any dairy products – at the moment I can only think of Moo Free.

» Easter Eggs for Vegans «

One of the popular misconceptions is that dairy-free means without eggs, but of course, if you’d not like to consume any eggs or animal products then you’d need to look for Vegan Easter eggs. Very few chocolate companies actually create chocolate with animals products in, although there are some wacky people such as Vosges and Zotter who do chocolate with bacon and fish. Big chocolate companies such as Hotel Chocolat and Thorntons do mark up their Easter eggs with the different dietary requirements, but sometimes the information isn’t easy to find.

» Gluten Free Easter Eggs «

It’s a lot easier for people wishing to exclude gluten from their diet to find Easter eggs than say vegans seeing as I’ve not come across any with barley, wheat or oats. But what is often important is not that there are none of these products in the ingredients, but that those Easter eggs are made in an environment with virtually no chance of contamination. In many cases the term “gluten free” means what are believed to be harmless levels of gluten contained within the product. But as this level differs between country, then I’m less confident to produce a definitive and completely accurate list.

One of the areas of great progress in recent years is that of organic chocolate. However, you’ll often have to look at the smaller producers or the niche ones like Green & Blacks to find organic Easter eggs. Hotel Chocolat does make some organic chocolate, but it’s mostly, as far as I can see, just with their chocolate bars, rather than their eggs.

The issue of “diabetic Easter eggs” is one of the big issues in chocolate. It’s commonly agreed in scientific circles that small amounts of chocolate can be consumed by diabetics – but as part of a controlled and balanced diet. You should really consult your GP or Diabetes UK before you buy chocolate for somebody who is a diabetic as you’ll need to understand the impact of the stuff. One of the problems with Easter eggs that are specifically labelled as “diabetic” is that they can contain suborbital or fructose which can have nasty consequences if consumed in abundance is they can have a laxative affect. You’re better off looking for “no added sugar” Easter eggs.

Easter eggs without any nuts in them are easy to find. Easter eggs made in factories that don’t also handle nuts are obviously more of an issue. I have a list, but it needs updating, of Easter eggs that you might like to consider.

» Soya Free Easter Eggs «

One of the big problems with chocolate is that virtually all chocolate makers add soya lecithin to their chocolate to “improve” the consistency of the product. However, there are many “bean to bar” chocolate makers that only use cacao and sugar to make dark chocolate or milk products for their milk chocolate. Some also use vanilla. It’ll be very hard to find Easter eggs with no soya in, but I’ll try.

» Low Fat Easter Eggs «

If you’re looking for low fat Easter eggs then you’re probably better off just looking at dark chocolate Easter eggs, and certainly not white chocolate ones.

» Low Salt Easter Eggs «

Thankfully you’re unlikely to find Easter eggs with salt added. But do look at all the information available on the product pages if you’re considering buying any.

» Casein Free Easter Eggs «

Related to dairy-free is casein free where casein is a substance which is most often found in milk. I’ll default to the dairy free for this requirement as I doubt many chocolate companies do label on this protein. I’ll still search, however.