It’s becoming harder and harder to find healthy, natural foods. Even staples like bread have a virtual novel of artificial ingredients. One way we can take back our lives and stay healthy is by avoiding all the engineered food pushed by the industrial food machine. Reading ingredient labels is a great way to avoid putting poison into your body. It makes sense to be leery of items on an ingredient list that you don’t recognize. The less ingredients on the list, the more likely it is actually “food.” One way that people choose to eat healthier is to go vegan.
Following is a list of food ingredients that may contain animal products and are therefore not vegan. If you’re trying to be a vegan or are cooking for someone who is vegan, you’ll need to avoid products containing these items. Many people choose a vegan diet to combat speciesism, boycott factory farming, decrease their carbon footprint, for a healthier life, or for other reasons. Hopefully this list can help beginning vegans, someone shopping for a vegan household, or someone who would just like to make the occasional cruelty-free choice.
Albumen/Albumin—protein from egg whites
Aliphatic Acid—can be derived from animals
Ambergris—from whale intestines
Amino acids/Alanine—protein from animals or plants
Artificial flavor/colors—can be animal-derived
Aspartic acid/Aminosuccinate acid—can be animal derived
Aspic—can be animal derived
Bee pollen—from plant matter collected on bees’ legs (legs often torn off in the process)
Beeswax/honeycomb benzoic acid—can be animal derived
Bonechar—animal bone ash
Bonito—dried flakes from fish
Calciferol—can be animal derived
Calcium stearate—a mineral from hogs and cattle
Caprylic acid—can come from cow or goat milk
Carmine/Cochineal/Carminic acid—red pigment from the crushed female cochineal beetle
Casein/Caseinate/Sodium Caseinate—milk protein
Cerebrosides—fatty acids and sugars in the covering of nerves
Chitosan—fiber from crustacean shells
Cysteine—amino acid from urine and animal hair
Ergocalciferol/ergosterol—can be animal derived
Fatty acids/Fish liver oil/Fish oil—can also be from marine mammals as well as fish
Food coloring/dyes—pigments from animals, plants, or synthetic sources
Gelatin—protein from cows and pigs
Ghee—a milk derivative
Glycerin/glycerol—can be from animal fats
Honey Isinglass—internal membranes of fish bladders
Isopropyl Palmitate Lactic Acid—from blood and muscle tissue
Lactose—milk sugar
Lanolin/Lanolin acids—from the oil glands of sheep
Lard—fat from hog abdomens
L-Cysteine—an amino acid from animal hair
Lecithin—can be from animal tissue or eggs
Lipase—enzyme from the stomachs and tongue glands of calves, kids, and lambs
Lipoids/lipids—fat from animals or plants
Marine oil—from fish or marine mammals
Marshmallow—gelatin
Methionine—can be from eggs or casein
Milk protein—from cow milk
Monoglycerides—from animal fat
Musk—secretion from some mammal genitals
Myristic acid—acid in animal and vegetable fats
Natural flavor/sources—can be animal derived
Oleic acid—from animal or vegetable fat
Omega 3/fats/oils—can be animal derived
Panthenol/dexpanthenol/Vitamin B Complex Factor/Provitamin B-5—from animal or plant sources
Pepsin—from pigs stomachs
Polysorbates—from plant or animal fatty acids
Rennet/rennin—enzyme from calves stomachs
Shellac/Resinous Glaze—can be resinous excretion of certain insects
Spermaceti/Cetyl Paimitate/Sperm Oil—oil from sperm whales or dolphins
Stearic acid—animal fats and oils
Tallow/Tallow fatty alcohol/Acetylated Tallow/Stearic Acid—rendered beef fat
Urea/carbamide—excreted from urine and other bodily fluids
Vitamin A—usually animal derived
Vitamin Bs—usually animal derived
Vitamin Ds—usually animal derived
Whey—from milk
White sugar—can be filtered with bone char
Worcestershire—usually contains anchovies