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Led by the Co-op, some supermarkets and food companies (such as Sainsbury’s, M&S, Hovis, Blue Dragon and Baxters) label their products as ’suitable for vegetarians or vegans’ where appropriate. To make it a bit more complicated, however, if it only says ‘suitable for vegetarians’, that doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t vegan!
Under EU law, if a vegan product is manufactured on a production line that also, at some time, deals with dairy or egg products, it must state on the packaging that it ‘may contain traces of milk or egg’. This is mainly to protect those who suffer from severe allergies to eggs or dairy, but has also led to some companies interpreting this to mean that their product is unsuitable for vegans, despite no animal products being used in their manufacture. (There are very few who take their veganism so far that they will only eat foods that come from a 100% animal-free kitchen or factory.)
Oreo biscuits – mentioned in yesterday’s blog – is one such example, where the company say they are not vegan because they come from a production line that also handles milk products, even though there are no animal products in the ingredients.Image may be NSFW.
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So the only real answer (unless it specifically states that a product is vegan) is to always remember to take your reading glasses (if you need them) when food shopping and go through the small print to check ingredients carefully. A real bore till you get used to it, but soon you’ll be able to spot animal products in seconds, as well as remember which products are okay. Whey, honey, vitamin D3 (mostly), lanolin, gelatine, cochineal (E120) and lecithin (soya and sunflower lecithin is OK) are amongst the most common non-vegan ingredients that you will need to look out for.
So just to clarify – if it hasn’t got any animal products listed in the ingredients, it’s fine regardless of whether it is actually labelled ‘vegan’ or not.
