For most foods, it’s pretty obvious whether they’re vegan or not. Occasionally, however, you will find various (shocking) animal products in foods you’d least expect them in.
Here’s a list of the most surprising instances of non-vegan food products.
1. Refined Sugar
This one irritated me. After all, how can pure white sugar possibly contain anything else apart from, well, sugar?! Technically, it’s not the sugar itself that isn’t vegan, but the production process.
Refined white sugar, including the powdered version, is bleached using animal bone ash. You can avoid this by buying sugar labeled as “organic” or “raw”.
2. Wine
Some vintners use gelatin and other animal proteins, such as egg whites, in the process of filtering their wines. Isinglass, a collagen derived from fish air bladders, is also occasionally used for clarification purposes.
3. Vanilla Flavoring
Don’t read this one if you’re easily disgusted.
Castoreum, an excrete that smells like vanilla, is extracted from beaver’s anal glands and used the occasional vanilla flavoring. Before it was discovered by the food industry, castoreum was used in traditional medicine to treat restlessness and painful periods.
4. Kimchi
Kimchi is a traditional, fermented Korean condiment, praised for it’s health-promoting probiotic properties. Besides requiring different vegetables (radish, cabbage, etc.) and gochugaru, a Korean red pepper powder, most kimchi recipes also call for fish sauce or dried shrimp. These animal-based ingredients give kimchi the desired “umami” taste.
5. Red Food Coloring
Look for “carmine” or “carminic acid” on the labels of foods you suspect contain red food coloring. This specific dye is made from crushed Coccus Cacti beetles and a commonly used ingredient in candies and juices.
6. Pesto
Traditional Italian pesto recipes call for Parmesan cheese. The production of Parmesan requires the coagulant rennet, which is extracted from the stomach of slaughtered calfs. This is why Parmesan, like most other artisan cheeses, technically isn’t even vegetarian.
7. Fruit Juices
Processed fruit juices that contain extra nutrients, such as omega 3 and various vitamins, aren’t inherently vegan. In fact, your daily orange juice may contain fish oils and gelatin to enhance its fatty acid profile! When in doubt, just go for the fruit juice with the least additives (or make it yourself!).
8. Vitamin D3 and Vitamin A Supplements
Most dietary supplements source their vitamin D3 from fatty fish skins or sheep’s wool. Many vegans choose plant-based alternatives because of the instances of animal cruelty that the wool industry is known for.
The vitamin A in supplements typically comes in the form of retinol or carotenoids. The former is derived from eggs and has a high bio-availability. The latter are plant-based and converted to vitamin A by the body when consumed. The most prominent carotenoid is beta carotene (the pigment that gives carrots and sweet potatoes their bright orange color).
9. Marshmallows
Marshmallows contain gelatin, a thickener which also gives gummy bears and jellybeans their texture. Gelatin is derived from pork and cattle hides, cartilage, fish by-products, or from boiling crushed animal bones.
10. Margarine
Margarine is vegan as long as it’s made from vegetable oils. But some brands add ingredients like lactose (a sugar found in dairy products), tallow (a form of fat found in beef and sheep), or suet (a solid fat found around the kidneys of various animals). Some margarine brands also enhance their product with omega 3s from fish oils or vitamin D3 from sheep’s wool.
11. Pre-Packaged Bread
The pre-packaged bread you can find on supermarket shelves occasionally includes the amino acid L-Cysteine on its ingredient list. Made from human hair or feathers, this agent is used to prolong the shelf-life of baked goods. Avoid L-Cysteine by opting for freshly-baked bread instead.
12. Yellow Food Coloring
This is one of those tricky ingredients which has a 50/50 chance of being vegan or not. Yellow food coloring often contains lutein, an antioxidant belonging to the carotenoids category, found in green leafy vegetables, corn, bell peppers, and eggs. Commercial food colorings containing lutein from eggs is typically used in beverages and candies.
Which one of these non-vegan foods shocked you the most? Leave a comment below or share your thoughts with me on EcoWorlder’s socials!