About Us

Vermont Nut Free Chocolate's founders Mark and Gail Elvidge watched their son Tanner suffer a severe allergic reaction to peanut butter at only 8 months old.

Tanner was later diagnosed with a life threatening peanut allergy after his first birthday. Mark and Gail started to look for products that were safe for their child.

They quickly discovered that nut free chocolate and candy were the hardest items to find. They called companies to ensure the candy was not only nut free, but not cross contaminated with peanuts or tree nuts from shared production lines and facilities.

Frustrated with a lack of options and not wanting Tanner to miss out on the sweet things in life, Gail began making homemade chocolate that was guaranteed safe.

Our online sales were booming, as more families and individuals with allergies discovered our brand. This allowed us to move away from our founder's home and into a real manufacturing facility in South Hero Vermont.

This facility had a small storefront so we were able to offer our customers the unique experience of being a kid in a candy store. We loved having folks from all over the U.S. and Canada stop by to shop our nut free treats.

In 2003, we moved to Grand Isle Vermont to continue our operation in a larger facility.

Our new facility allowed us to continue to grow our product offerings, adding new seasonal items to our catalog, as well as hire more staff.

We take pride in making our chocolates the old-fashioned way, by-hand, using the freshest ingredients. While we continue to grow and update our manufacturing processes, we try to still make everything in small batches using the utmost care.

In an effort to ensure our nut-allergic customers do not have to miss out on any of the fun sweets, we started making nut free 'dupes' of popular candies.

We made our first batch of Sun Blossoms® (sunflower butter filled chocolate cups) in 2015. They are the ultimate peanut free alternative to a peanut butter cup. We rebranded and reformulated these cups in 2021, lending to an improved texture and taste.

Moving to a larger facility has allowed to us increase production and store more items. We are now able to sell our products to stores across the U.S.

We are not in every major grocery chain yet, but we are working hard to get into stores near you.

You can find stores in your area, using the store locator on our website.

If your favorite grocery store or small business is not yet listed, you may be able to change that! Next time you shop ask for the manager on shift and request Vermont Nut Free Chocolates by name, emphasizing your desire and need to buy our products at their store. We have found that when customers ask for our products directly, we are able to get into more locations. 

Let us know where you want to see our products, too! Send in your requests for stores and we will follow up with these stores directly and keep you updated through social media and e-newsletters when new stores bring in our products.

Email your recommendations to: sales@vermontnutfree.com

Our customers started to express interest in products with a cleaner ingredient label. The most popular request was to remove artificial dyes from our famous candy-coated chocolate pieces, Skippers®.

Our team did extensive testing and product development to identify the best-tasting, best-looking, and allergen-free natural colors before reformulating.

In June of 2026, we launched our NEW Skippers®—colored with plant-based dyes from Blackcurrant, Sweet Potato, Spirulina, Turmeric, Carrot, Radish, and Beet.   

The response was very positive! We are working to remove all artificial dyes from our products by the end of 2026.