Beware Stork WITH butter – NOT dairy free

Apart from being a very tall, long legged wading bird, Stork is every dairy allergics kitchen saviour when making pastry or cookies; it means you don’t need butter at all but can still make fantastic pies and baked goods. Pastry is just as good with stork, you wouldn’t even know it wasn’t made with butter from the taste.

Originally created in the 1930’s Stork margarine became ever more popular during the war when butter was rationed and in short supply. A block of original Stork vegetable margarine is dairy free and contains the following ingredients:

“Vegetable Oils in Varying Proportions (Rapeseed, Palm, Sunflower), Water, Salt (1.5%), Emulsifier (Mono and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Citric Acid, Colour (Carotene), Vitamin A and D, Flavourings.”

Now this may sound really obvious and is labelled quite clearly, but I recently saw an television advert for new Stork with butter, which set a few alarm bells ringing. It would seem that Unilever has indeed launched a new blend of Stork with butter.

Now those of us who are on the ball and read packaging would spot this but what about the family members who know they can cook for the dairy allergic using Stork? Would they spot this? Would they check the ingredients on a product which has remained pretty much unchanged for some eighty years?

It is a lesson in always checking and never assuming a product is going to be safe at all times. Always, always read the labels for allergen warnings and never say a product us OK to someone.

ie. ‘Yes Stork is OK’. Because, now it might not be.

And make sure your friends and family members know about this, especially if they are in the habit of being rather lovely and kind and baking for you. There are of course many other dairy free spreads on the market including Vitalite, Pure and supermarket own brands but always check, always read every label and stay safe.