A vegan food company popular with Nigella Lawson has had to recall all its yoghurt products after they were found to contain milk.
CO YO, which was set up by a police officer while she was on maternity leave, has had to withdraw all its flavours of dairy free coconut milk yoghurt – because it actually contains ‘undeclared’ milk.
Food Standards Agency said the yoghurt should be taken back to shops as it poses a risk to sufferers of dairy allergies.
Nigella Lawson, pictured, as used the vegan coconut yoghurt product in the past
CO YO who produce a range of dairy free Coconut Milk yoghurts popular with celebrities such as Nigella Lawson and Ella Woodward have recalled a batch of their product after testing discovered some of the cartons contained traces of cows’ milk
Nigella Lawson has updated her social media followers about her use of CO YO’s products
The company said they are ‘devastated’ to discover cows’ milk in their products
The watchdog also warned customers who may have bought the yoghurt not to eat it if thy are allergic to dairy.
CO YO was launched six years ago by mother-of-two Bethany Eaton, 38, from Kent and is sold in Waitrose, Selfridges and Tesco, turning over £4.5 million last year.
Celebrity chefs Ella Woodward and Nigella Lawson are said to be fans of the brands have used the dairy free vegan yoghurt and ice cream in recipes.
A spokesman for the Food Standards Agency said: ‘These products contain milk making them a possible health risk for anyone with an allergy or intolerance to milk or milk constituents.
‘CO YO is recalling the above products from customers and has contacted the relevant allergy support organisations, which will tell their members about the recall.
‘The company has also issued a point-of-sale notice to its customers. These notices explain to customers why the products are being recalled and tell them what to do if they have bought the products.
‘If you have bought any of the above products and have an allergy or intolerance to milk or milk constituents do not eat it. Instead return it to the store from where it was bought for a full refund.’
CO YO website says: ‘Our dairy free Coconut Milk Yoghurt is handcrafted from the squeezed flesh of the coconut, to which we add five carefully sourced plant fed vegan cultures producing a velvety smooth dairy free alternative.. There are no added sweeteners or preservatives, just simple, whole ingredients.’
A spokesperson for the company said: ‘During recent product testing, a small amount of dairy has been found in our CO YO yoghurts. We are devastated by this, especially as being dairy-free sits at the heart of everything we do and we’ve always taken great care to ensure we provide our customers with high-quality, dairy-free products, made in our own dairy-free factory.
‘We’ve carried out a thorough review of our ingredients and we have identified that the contaminated material was provided to us by an external third-party supplier.
‘As a precautionary measure, and to ensure that our customers can continue to have confidence that our products are dairy-free, we are working with the Food Standards Agency and local government organisations to make sure any potentially non-dairy material is removed from shop shelves. We have also terminated our relationship with the third-party supplier to ensure that this never happens again.
‘If you have any CO YO product with a use-by date earlier than and including Friday 16th March, please contact the store you purchased it from for a full refund. If you have any concerns about any of our products please don’t hesitate to contact us. Once again, we would like to apologise to all our customers for any concern this may have caused.’