Dear So NOT Delicious:

from the archives:

April 10, 2013
To the Great Team at So Delicious:
It has recently come to my attention that the additive “carrageenan” is harmful for human consumption. I have been eating your So Delicious brand coconut desserts and drinking your coconut milk with abandon ever since they were released, and now I am very concerned and looking for alternatives.

http://wholegreenlove.com/2013/04/07/carrageenan-a-dangerous-sneaky-commonly-used-food-additive/

Would you please take a look at this report and then consider, if you have not already, removing this harmful additive from these delicious products?

I would be ever so grateful, as would your not-yet-informed but trusting customers.

Many thanks,
Nina Miller

Although the company representative did not explicitly acknowledge that carrageenan was “bad”, I appreciate that she didn’t spend her letter trying to defend it and that the company is willing to replace it. That said, it took them more like three years to do it, and not in all the products.

April 12, 2013

Hello Nina,

When new consumer concerns about this ingredient surfaced, we began taking proactive steps on our own to assess its use in our products. We believe that the scientific literature overwhelmingly concludes that undegraded carrageenan is safe to eat. However, we continue to evaluate and assess its use in some of our products.  We are committed to using the highest quality ingredients and offering products that are delicious and respectful of our consumers and the planet.

In addition, due to the overwhelming requests from our consumers, we are actively pursuing the removal of carrageenan from our products.  In order to replace the carrageenan, current ingredient inventories and the packaging for our products need to be managed.  If everything goes as estimated, and we successfully make the transition away from carrageenan, carrageenan-free product would begin hitting store shelves late 2013!!!

This is a very costly process to remove this ingredient, but we do listen to our consumers and are willing to make the changes.

I hope when you read the above information and see all the many organizations that have tested the undegraded carrageenan, including the organization that sets standards for organic products, you will see that we don’t use ingredients that are suspect in our products.  It will take time to use up our current packaging, but by the latter part of the year, you should see that ingredient removed from our products.

We have several new products that have been introduced in the past six months that do not contain carrageenan – including our new coconut milk Greek-style yogurts and our almond milk frozen pints and novelties.

Let me know if you have any other questions and thank you for being such a So Delicious fan!!

Thank you,

Shay
Shay Haack
Consumer Relations
So Delicious Dairy Free
Turtle Mountain, LLC
 1-866-388-7853  ext. 3445
shaack@turtlemountain.com

I never got a response to this follow up:
August 4, 2013< Hi Shay, Thanks for your prompt reply to my letter—your concern helps instill confidence in me, the consumer. I am delighted that your company is working to eliminate carrageenan from your otherwise high quality and virtuous foods. As more research becomes available about this additive, more people are becoming smarter consumers. http://www.cornucopia.org/2012/05/shopping-guide-to-avoiding-organic-foods-with-carrageenan/

My family has now reverted to the canned coconut milk alternative–although I am concerned about BPAs in cans and also am not a fan of all the gums that gum up your intestines. 
I am anxious to know if you have a release date yet for the non-carrageenan milk, as I would like to resume buying it. Any information would be much appreciated.
Thanks again for acknowledging the validity of my concerns and not using “scientific literature” as a crutch to defend the use of questionable ingredients. I’m glad that Mark Brawerman is keeping the company honest!

I appreciate your efforts,
Nina
Current Status: They have removed carrageenan from their coconut milks and yogurts (good news!). Their almond milks still contain it (I will find out why), and their cashew milk contains Canola oil, another bad ingredient to avoid.