This article aims to help you distinguish vegan from non-vegan products.
It is a guide that covers non-vegan food ingredients that go unnoticed, and it also gives you some insight into cosmetics, clothing, shoes, and related industries.
How to know if a product is vegan? There is no quick answer, it depends on what product it is. Is it food, make-up, a coat or a pair of shoes?
In a nutshell, a product is vegan if it displays the vegan and cruelty-free symbol or if the label or tag does not include any ingredients or raw materials that may be of animal origin. The product or the ingredients in it must also not be tested on animals.
In this complete guide, you will find all the information on how to tell if a food, cosmetic, or clothing/footwear product is vegan.
How To Know If A Product Is Vegan
Veganism is a lifestyle that aims to eliminate animal cruelty as much as practicable possible, and therefore is not only limited to food but also to all other products that use animal ingredients or in some way exploit animals, such as cosmetics, the textile, and entertainment industries.
In a simplified way, a product is considered vegan if:
- It displays the vegan and cruelty-free symbol;
- It is free of any ingredient that may be of animal origin – find out which ones below.
- The company does not test on animals;
- The company does not sponsor events that use animals.
Which Foods Are Not Vegan?
The vegan lifestyle excludes all foods that are of animal origin, namely meat, fish, seafood, eggs, milk, honey, and any other food/ingredient that has an animal origin.
Processed meat-based foods (ham, sausage, mortadella, salami, etc.) are not vegan. And dairy products (yogurt, cheese, butter, whipped cream, etc.) are not vegan, since they are derived from animal milk.
The different types of vegetarian diets often lead to confusion, but there are clear differences among them:
- Ovolactovegetarian: excludes meat and fish but includes eggs and dairy products;
- Ovovegetarian: excludes meat, fish, and dairy products but includes eggs;
- Lactovegetarian: excludes meat, fish, and eggs but includes dairy products;
- Strict vegetarian: excludes all foods of animal origin.
A vegan practices a strict vegetarian diet and has a philosophy of life that aims to abolish animal cruelty as much as humanely possible, and that includes all products, not only food.
How to Check If Food is Vegan
We already know that meat, fish, eggs, dairy, and honey are not vegan.
Processed foods like cookies, bread, and ice cream contain an endless list of ingredients, many with names we don’t understand. Some of these ingredients are not vegan.
A large number of processed products contain dairy products that may appear on labels as the following:
- Lactose
- Skim milk solids
- Whey, whey powder
- Milk powder, skim milk powder, whole milk powder
- Casein, milk protein, hydrolyzed milk protein
- Butter concentrate, butter oil, butter, milk fat.
Besides dairy products, the most common animal ingredients in processed foods are:
- Lactic Acid – usually derived from plants such as beets. When of animal origin, it is found in the blood and muscle tissue of animals.
- Albumin – usually of animal origin, typically egg white.
- Flavors – can be of vegetable or animal origin.
- E160a Beta-Carotene dye – generally of vegetable origin, but often used in conjunction with animal ingredients.
- E120 Carmine Dye – comes from the female cochineal insect, it is necessary to kill a large amount of these insects to get some of this dye, widely used in the cosmetic industry but also in reddish filled cookies.
- Disodium inosinate – a flavor enhancer that can be of animal origin (meat).
- Gelatin – produced from animal bones, ligaments, tendons, and skin.
- Disodium Guanylate – flavor enhancer that may have an animal origin (meat or fish).
- Lecithin – of vegetable or animal origin. When of vegetable origin it is often called soy lecithin or sunflower lecithin.
- Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids – of vegetable or animal origin.
- Omega 3 – of vegetable or animal origin.
- Vitamin D3 – foods fortified with vitamin D3 are not vegan unless the packaging states otherwise. Generally, vitamin D is obtained from lanolin, which is extracted from sheep’s wool.
In addition to verifying that the product is free of animal ingredients, it is important to know if the company that owns the product practices animal testing and/or sponsors animal events.
For example, The Coca-Cola Company sponsors rodeos in the USA, and because of this, many vegans prefer not to consume their products.
How to Check If Cosmetics Are Vegan
Cosmetics can be divided into two main issues: ingredients and animal testing.
Ingredients
Cosmetics include several ingredients that can be of bo