Reading food labels can be confusing at best, and if you’re just starting out in the vegan lifestyle, there are quite a few ‘label pitfalls’ to watch out for. While you may think you’re buying an animal free product, many of those hard-to-pronounce ingredients you see on the package are pseudonyms for something that used to have four legs. And manufacturers often attempt to skirt the issue in their labeling practices. Here are some tips to help you negotiate the grocery store as a new vegan.
Looking at Product Labels
Labels can be deliberately misleading, and not just where the ingredients list is concerned. Non-vegan items can be hiding elsewhere on the product label, and certain labels, while sounding good, are not necessarily indicative of an animal free product.
- Check out the cholesterol percentage listed in the nutritional information. If it’s more than zero, the product has animal ingredients. Animals are the only source of cholesterol in processed foods.
- Be on the lookout for items that don’t list the full contents if each ingredient. Things such as ‘natural flavours’, for example, are not vegan friendly.
- Don’t confuse pareve or kosher with vegan. Kosher simply means that meat and dairy do not appear together in the food. While pareve items may not contain either meat or dairy products, fish, eggs and honey are considered acceptable, so any products labeled as such should be read with care.
- A product labeled as ‘natural’ doesn’t indicate that it’s vegan. After all, goat’s milk and honey are natural, but they’re not something vegans want to use or ingest.
- Also beware of labels marked ‘non-dairy”. Surprisingly enough, they’re usually not. The term was coined in consideration of the dairy industry and is directed at the lactose intolerant market. It means only that the food is not primarily dairy based.
- Don’t be fooled by the ‘no animal by-product’ or ‘cruelty-free’ labels either. The first may contain animal products—as opposed to by-products—while the second means only that the product was not tested on animals, which is a separate issue and doesn’t guarantee a product free of animal derivatives.
Alternative Names for Animal Ingredients
Although English might be the language you speak everyday, what you see on the food ingredients list may seem more like Greek. There are many alternative names for things like milk and eggs and other non-vegan food components. These are just a few examples:
- Casein – a class of milk proteins often found in items marked ‘non-dairy’
- Ghee – a common milk derivative
- Albumen – protein found in egg whites
- Cochineal/Carmine – a coloring agent made from ground up beetles
- Oleic acid – fat from sheep or cattle
- Rennin/Rennet – enzymes from a calf’s stomach
- Calcium Stearate – a mineral usually derived from hogs and cattle
- Gelatin – protein from animal bones, cartilage, tendons, and skin
- Glycerides (mono/di/tri) – glycerol from animal fats
- Stearic acid – animal fats and oils
- Lecithin – phospholipids often from animal tissues and eggs
- Pepsin – enzymes gathered from pigs stomachs
If you’re thinking that a trip to the grocery store just got a lot more complicated, don’t worry; you’ll soon get the hang of it, and your shopping time will decrease. It’s a good idea to take along a more complete list of animal ingredients with you on your first few forays to the grocery store as a vegan. While eating animal free can be a challenge at first, there are plenty of places to go for in-depth information and delicious animal friendly recipes.
Mary Williams - Mary holds both Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in English and a passion for photography that is rivaled only by her passion for ...
