Vegan Dairy on Restaurant Menus? Why the Desserts Might Not be Safe

Perfect Day, the original vegan dairy company, has now made their way into food service. They’ve teamed up with Villa Dolce to create vegan gelato and ready-to-bake dessert mixes with their genetically engineered whey proteins. These dairy-full sweets will be available via distribution to over 2000 restaurants, hotels, casinos, and universities. Which means, some of those vegan desserts on the menu might not be dairy-free.

Vegan Dairy on Restaurant Menus? Why the Desserts Might Not be Safe

Yes, there are now vegan products that contain dairy. We realize it’s confusing, which is why we have information on the new era of Vegan Foods that Contain Dairy. We also have an ongoing guide for Vegan Products that Contain Dairy. But food service distribution is a trickier situation.

Unlike manufacturers of pre-packaged food products, food establishments have no requirements to list ingredients or allergens on freshly prepared items. But they can, and often do use descriptors like “vegan” on their menus. This means dairy-free customers will have to scrutinize items labeled as vegan when eating out. And they might be dealing with staff that isn’t well educated in allergens, dairy ingredients, veganism, and genetically engineered dairy proteins.

Villa Dolce also makes sorbetto, but the vegan dairy line includes several flavors of creamy gelato. And make no mistake – those are milk based! According to Perfect Day, the gelato flavors include:

Sea Salt Vanilla & Honeycomb
Caramel Cold Brew
Chocolate all’Arancia
Strawberry After Dark
Burnt Caramel Praline
Pistachio Latte
Tahitian Vanilla Bean

And the ready-to-bake dessert mixes are as follows:

Cookie Dough
Pistachio Cake
Southern Brown Butter Cake
Lava Cake

These products seek to meet the needs of ethically-driven vegans, but can be problematic for other types of dairy-free consumers. They have already been picked up by Arizona State University, UCLA, Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Many more restaurants and food halls are expected to come on board.

At present, the genetically engineered milk proteins only affect desserts in food service. But vegan dairy cheese is rapidly heading toward the market and could also hit food service in the coming years.

Photos from Perfect Day Foods

For More Dairy-Free Living Guidance, Get Go Dairy Free!

2 Comments

Angie on October 11, 2021 7:23 pm
Would they be lactose-free?
I didn’t see any info on lactose content.
- Alisa Fleming on October 11, 2021 9:43 pm
  Many of the vegan dairy products are engineered to be lactose-free. You’d need to check with the restaurant or brand to confirm.