Cocoa butter is *not* a dairy product.

The Trader Joe's chips are typically kosher-pareve, which means that they
are prepared without dairy products and on equipment that either doesn't
touch milk products or is cleaned of dairy products in a way that satisfies
the Jewish laws of kashrute (what qualifies something to be kosher). While
this is not a completely foolproof method of being sure that the food does
not have microscopic dairy contamination, it is probably the only reliable
way that we consumers can tell if something's free of dairy ingredients.

You might find some things that are marked "kosher diary" but have no dairy
ingredients, like some chocolates. This just says that the equipment has
been used to make dairy chocolate and may not have been cleaned enough to
ensure that there is no dairy contamination. For many with LI, this
probably won't be a problem. For those with ultra-severe dairy allergies,
this could be a problem.

For the most part, we have found the store brands of chocolate chips to be
most likely to be kosher-pareve.

Mark


At 10:48 PM 9/29/99 -0500, you wrote:
 >Hi,
 >
 >Can someone help me with lactose free chocolate chips?
 >
 >The normal chocolate chips in the store all seem to have some form of milk
 >in them.  I tried using
 >Carob chips this weekend and they were pretty good, but kind of different
 >from chocolate.
 >
 >Also, I did find a brand at Trader Joe's with 'Cocoa Butter' in them.  Can
 >someone tell me what
 >this is?  The butter part made me think it is milk related and would have
 >lactose.
 >
 >Thanks,
 >
 >Rob