Animal Ingredients Concealed in Food Packaging Labelling

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In England, where I've recently visited, there are many vegan-friendly foods on the market, but here in Australia, many food manufacturers are slow on the uptake. They don't realise that there's a growing market for those of us who are vegan.

Either it's a conspiracy against us to discourage people from becoming vegan or, more likely, they don't really understand what vegan means, or why vegans avoid animal products, or how important the ethics of food are to some people. Perhaps they think that if they make things too obvious they might put even the omnivores off their products, or perhaps they don't realise what constitutes an 'animal product'. Either way, there are so many products on the Australian market which seem to be 'vegetarian friendly' but NOT vegan friendly. We find 'good quality' ingredients, intended to appeal to the health conscious, like Quinitos (quinoa and rice snacks) which may be full of attractive organic ingredients but contain honey.

Mostly, the products in health food shops containing 'whole food ingredients' also contain milk. Presumably, if this isn't an anti-vegan conspiracy, then they use animal by-products because they are cheap and effective in making for 'better taste'. If egg is used, making the product non-vegan, it is for its binding quality. The egg used is more useful to the sale of the product than un-useful because a handful of vegan consumers who might buy it if it were NOT containing that egg. Sometimes the by-products are hidden by the unfamiliarity of their names.

Thanks to Jadeite Vegetarian Singapore for the following useful list, below:

Unexpected animal additives, like dairy products, poultry or beef broth/stocks, eggs and so on. Several brands of veggie hamburgers, for instance, consist of eggs, and some soy cheeses are manufactured together with dairy. Deciphering animal ingredient from the labels is usually a challenging task. How can you know if something’s vegan if you ever don’t understand what it is? 

Listed below are a list of 12 animal ingredients in disguise:

1) Albumin – water-soluble proteins produced by milk, egg-whites or blood from animals.
2) Albumen – Sometimes wrongly identified as Albumin, Albumen is an egg white, or the protein contained in it.
3) Bone char – Derived from charring animal bones as well as animal bone ash, used to process white sugar. Primarily produced from cow and cattle bones.
4) Casein –The main protein in cow’s milk, it comes in several forms, which may be listed as ammonium, caseinate, calcium caseinate, potassium caseinate, or sodium caseinate. Casein is commonly used as a major part of cheese, it’s also used as food additive to further improve the texture of foods, including cereals, breads, and chocolates.
5) Carmine or cochineal: Red pigment produced from crushed beetles, used in foods, makeup, and nutritional supplements.
6) Gelatin – Common ingredient accustomed to make treats like Jell-O, gummy bears, and marshmallows, gelatin is created by boiling the skin, tendons, ligaments, and/or bones of cattle and pigs (kosher gelatin is created from fish).
7) Lard – It is created from pig fat. Sometimes included in many cuisines as a cooking fat or baking.
8) Lecithin – Some Lecithin is derived from animal fat and egg (soy lecithin is constructed from soybeans); it’s is normally found in salad dressings to prevent separation of oil and vinegar.
9) Methionine: Essential amino acids made from eggs or cow’s milk
10) Pepsin: Enzyme Produced from hog stomachs
11) Rennet – An Enzyme obtained from the stomach of calves, rennet is commonly used as a coagulant during the cheese-making process
12) Whey – Made from milk, the remaining liquid after milk curds are segregated out, whey is commonly used to make cheese and is usually found in protein energy drinks and bar.

Jadeite Vegetarian