Is it Vegan?

Even the most dedicated and knowledgeable vegan will sometimes be unsure as to whether a certain product or food is, in fact, vegan. The strange, and sometimes opaque, manufacturing processes of modern food production make things far from easy, and some foodstuffs that may appear to be vegan-friendly are actually not.

Here at our Is it Vegan? hub we cover both the most obscure, complex “Is X vegan?” questions, as well as the simpler queries asked by those new to veganism, or those considering a move to a plant-based diet. We’ll be adding to this all the time to, so if you are not sure about a certain item, whether food, cosmetics, clothing or anything else, get in touch and we’ll add it to our list!

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Is It Vegan: Quick Reference

With many foods, the distinction is quite clear but for others it is far less obvious. Even some items which may seem obviously vegan can throw up complications for very strict vegans. The table below gives you a quick reference guide to what is and isn’t vegan, with brief notes explaining any potential issues.

What is Veganism?

When assessing whether a particular food or product is vegan, we must, of course, look to the definitions of what veganism is. One of the founding fathers of the vegan movement, Leslie J Cross, was the first to attempt to define what it meant to be a vegan. He said that it was “to seek an end to the use of animals by man for food, commodities, work, hunting, vivisection, and by all other uses involving exploitation of animal life by man”. Over time, this evolved and veganism is now defined by The Vegan Society (the oldest vegan society in the world, founded in 1944) as:

A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude – as far as is possible and practicable – all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.

Of course, even this ostensibly clear definition leaves plenty of scope for personal interpretation. The phrase “as far as is possible and practicable” can have very different meanings from one vegan to another. What one does and doesn’t eat and use is down to personal choice; each individual must decide where his or her own line lies.

What Stops Things Being Vegan?

The obvious answer to the question of what makes a particular food or product not vegan is: because it derives from animals. But things aren’t always as clear-cut as that. Here we will go through some of the main reasons things are not vegan.

Produced Directly from Animals or Animal Products

Clearly a steak, an egg or a salmon fillet are all derived from animals, and thus are not vegan. But there are a whole host of products that are less obviously non-vegan. Food products might contain animal products within their ingredients, but sometimes such ingredients are included using somewhat obscure names.

Carmine – “Natural Red 4”

An example of an obscure-sounding ingredient that actually comes from animals is carmine (also called cochineal extract or the slightly cosier-sounding “natural red 4”). Carmine is used as a red dye in a wide variety of foods and products, including many types of sweets, ice cream, yoghurt, lipstick and other cosmetics. Carmine is usually produced by boiling dried cochineal insects, with approximately 150,000 of the bugs required to produce just a kilogram of the dye.

L-cysteine, Casein, Lanolin

Here are just a couple of ingredients that are not obviously derived from animals:

• L-cysteine – amino acid used as a processing aid in some bread making, L-cysteine is usually obtained from poultry feathers or hog hair
• Casein – a protein found in the milk of various mammals, used as an additive in various foods (some crackers and cookies for instance) and products (paint, glue, plastics and condoms!)
• Lanolin – most vegans know they need to be aware of consuming enough vitamin D, but maybe not so many will realise that vitamin D3 is often made using lanolin derived from sheep’s wool and is frequently added to fortify products such as orange juice and breakfast cereals.

Animal Products Used in Production

While many people assume the only things that go into making their pint of ale on a Friday night are barley, hops, water and yeast, the production of that pint might well have made it less than vegan-friendly. A lot of people are not aware that the isinglass often used in beer production derives from the dried swim bladders of fish.

A wide variety of foods, drinks, cosmetics, supplements and other products utilise animal products in their production processes, and thus cannot be classified as vegan. An example would be the so-called “slip agents” often used in the production of plastic bags, which are generally derived from stearic acid, which in turn, is usually produced from animal fat.

Here are a couple more examples of things that have used animal products at some point in their production:

Sugar

Sugar has to be vegan, it comes from a plant, right? Well, it does indeed, but the refining processes undertaken to make both brown sugar and white sugar can sometimes utilise bone char that is made, as the name suggests, by charring animal bones.

Plywood

Many types of glue are derived from animals products of some sort or other, and the blood glue used in a lot of plywood production, you will not be surprised to hear, is made using the blood of animals.

Products Tested on Animals

Aside from things that actually contain animal products or those which have utilised them in their production processes, vegans are also opposed to products that have been tested on animals. There is something of an ethical dilemma for vegans here, however.

Medicine

In the UK, all new medicines are required to be tested on animals to ensure they are safe prior to them being tested on humans. Testing on animals for medical research is regulated under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, and though this provides for the principles of “replacement, reduction and refinement” in relation to animal testing, the fact remains that almost all medicine anyone is prescribed in the UK will have been tested on animals at some point.

This is clearly something of a concern to many vegans and the Vegan Society is quite explicit, saying that the Society “DOES NOT recommend you avoid medication prescribed to you by your doctor.” While in an ideal world, medicines would be able to be developed using non-animal testing methods including computer modelling, there is no prospect of animal testing being eradicated in the pharmaceuticals industry in the near future.

As such, almost all vegans make use of the “as far as is possible and practicable” section of the generally accepted definition of veganism as put forward by The Vegan Society. As they say, “a dead vegan is no use to anyone!”

Of course, while many believe it is justifiable to test potentially life-saving medicines on animals (in as ethical a way as possible), there are many products that are still tested on animals that are much less justifiable. A good number of products and brands have moved away from animal testing in the last couple of decades, but there are still examples of many industries in which animal testing remains commonplace, a couple of categories of which are listed here.

Cosmetics

Beauty is big business and the cosmetics industry has long been associated with testing all manner of products on animals. While there are a growing number of ethically minded cosmetics companies who do not test on animals (for example Lush and the Body Shop), there are still far too many big cosmetics companies who still test on animals.

A rule of thumb is that if it is not obvious from a product’s packaging or the company’s website that they DO NOT test on animals, there is a fair chance they do! If unsure, you should be able to get a straight answer if you contact the company’s customer services department.

Household Products

Various household products from furniture polish to tissues, disinfectant to washing up liquid, mouthwash to condoms, and more or less anything else that you come into contact with, have often been tested on animals.

For concerned vegans, it is probably a case of opting for brands that explicitly reject animal testing, such as Ecover, and those that are part of the Leaping Bunny Certification Programme introduced by Cruelty Free International.

Exploitation of Animals for Entertainment or Sport

Exploitation of animals comes in a range of forms and lots of vegans are opposed to the many guises this can take, for example zoos and aquariums. Though these can differ greatly in terms of their ethical stances, the living conditions they provide to the animals and the educational value offered to visitors, it is hard to justify that an animal who is used to living in an expansive territory in the wild is going to thrive in the confinement it is subjected to in captivity.

While it could be argued there is a place for some captive animals, for instance for breeding programmes to help save a species from extinction or sanctuaries for abandoned or orphaned animals, on the whole, institutions that exploit animals seemingly for the entertainment of humans fly in the face of the ethos of veganism. Other examples that many vegans see as the exploitation of animals include:

Horse & Dog Racing

Though many in the horse racing and greyhound racing industries point towards the improvements in safety and animal care standards in recent years, vegans still find this kind of “sport” difficult to stomach.

Pets

Many vegans are opposed to the keeping of animals as pets for the reason that it essentially puts the animals in an unnatural (for them) environment in order to offer companionship or other benefits to the owner.

Like with most belief systems, however, there is a wide spectrum of opinions among vegans about whether or not it is ethical to keep pets. For instance, some argue that caring for a pet, particularly one that has been abandoned, fits well into the ethical framework of veganism.

Animals in Films & TV

Some vegans suggest that training animals specifically for use on television or in films is clear exploitation and that filming animals in their natural environment is not only more ethical, but much more educational.

Your Due Diligence as a Vegan

These are just a few of the products that are not vegan-friendly, but it should give those seeking to follow a vegan lifestyle food for thought. Sometimes it is not enough to simply check the list of ingredients to discern whether or not something is vegan.

Being vegan requires a little research and a lot of commitment but as long as you are aware that it may be necessary to delve a little deeper, you should be able to ascertain whether or not any product or food is suitable for your own lifestyle.