vegan rice cereals etc

[Teejay]

Does anyone know which specific brands of these first cereals (preferably iron-fortified) are vegan?

Cheers...

[Erin Pavlina]

not sure of brands, but the ones at Whole Foods I believe are all vegan. They contain pretty basic stuff... just the grains I believe.

Check out the organic ones.

[go4green]

Earth's Best is organic, iron fortified and I called the company on the amalyse-they state it's a plant derived form-asparagus specifically.

[Teejay]

Thanks for this info. I had been looking at the Earth's Best website and I assumed something in their rice cereal was not vegan, because all the other vegan products on their website have the word "vegan" listed, and this one doesn't. So I concluded it wasn't vegan.

Maybe I should write to them and get it in print? The amylase might be ok, but perhaps the iron is not vegetable-derived?

I'll post if I find out anything more.

[go4green]

Hi Teejay,

Thanks for the observation, I am not sure we have the same company though? Earth's Best of the Hain Celestial Group.

Here are the ingredients on the whole grain rice cereal;

Organically Grown Brown Rice
Soybean Lecithin
Tocopherols (vitamin E, also from soybeans)
a-Amylase (enzyme-derived from asparagus)
Electrolytic Iron (naturally occuring from the earth, the electrolytic is supposed to be easier to absorb).

here is the companies # 800-442-4221

I haven't checked, but the mixed grain and oatmeal are supposed to be vegan too. This company does make a pasta dinner with cheese and blueberries with yogurt but they assured me that the plants are sanitized and they take processing precuations, so that no dairy could get in the cereal, for allergy purposes. I don't think the use the same plants, because then the cereal would have to list a disclaimer produced in a plant that contains dairy/ animal products and it doesn't.

I don't like that they sell other dairy containing products, we don't buy those, but I will continue to use this cereal unless I find something better. I will probably start Elle on some other grain in a few months, she is 10 months now and has only had rice for 1 month. I am still looking into when to add other grains. I was a little pressured at her 9 month checkup to start iron fortified cereal, that's in the past, but I would like to wait as long as needed for the other grains, she eats quite a bit of food otherwise.

This is everything I know please do keep me posted~J.

[Teejay]

Wow, thanks for all that information!

Yes, it is the same company -- but remember, I had only looked on their website, I hadn't actually contacted them.

I wonder if the small amount of soy-derived lecithin would affect my baby, who (it seems) has a soy intolerance? I guess I will just have to try.

It's still a few months away, anyway -- he's only 3 months old now.

Thanks so much for posting the details.

[stacy]

it's really easy to make your own rice cereal--and oatmeal, barley etc. just blend organic brown rice in the blender for 1-2 min ( i use my coffee grinder) then put a bit in boiling water and stir it and let it cook for 5 min. you can grind a lot and store it in airtight containers. it's cheap, easy, and you know what's in it. my baby loves it.

[veganmum]

wow, I would have thought that ALL rice-cereals were vegan. I bought mine at a health food store and it's just got organic brown rice listed as the ingredients. (then added iron, zinc, etc)

The company is "Healthy Times".