Label reading
Which ingredients are vegetarian
Short answer
One question decides it: did the animal have to die? 17 substances here fail both diets on that test. 21 come from animals that keep living, which is the whole practical difference between vegetarian and vegan. 44 depend on which supplier the manufacturer used.
Fails both diets
Obtaining these requires the animal to die, so vegetarians and vegans both exclude them.
Blood Albumin (Historical Fining)
Processing agentcattle
Bone Char
Additivecattle
Bone Phosphate
Additivecattle or pig
Carmine
Additivecochineal insect
Chitosan
Processing agentshrimp, crab, or lobster
Down
Materialduck or goose
Gelatin
Additivepig, cattle, or fish
Isinglass
Additivefish, historically sturgeon and now often cod
Lard (Baking/Frying Fat)
Processing agentpig
Leather
Materialcattle, pig, sheep, or goat, and exotic species such as crocodile, ostrich, and snake
Pepsin
Processing agentpig, and other livestock
Porcine Gelatin (Beverage Fining)
Processing agentpig
Rennet (Animal Rennet)
Processing agentcalf, and other young ruminants
Shellac
Additivelac bug
Silk
Materialsilkworm
Tallow
Additivecattle or sheep
Trypsin
Processing agentpig or cattle
Vegetarian, and outside a vegan diet
These come from animals that keep living. This group is the entire practical difference between the two diets.
Alpaca
Materialalpaca
Angora
Materialangora rabbit
Beeswax
Additivehoneybee
Camel Hair
Materialbactrian camel
Casein
Additivecow
Cashmere
Materialcashmere goat
Egg Albumin (Wine Fining)
Processing agenthen
Egg Albumin Powder (Wine/Juice Fining)
Processing agenthen
Felt (Wool Felt)
Materialsheep
Lactic Acid
Additivecow, via the historic and now commercially obsolete route from soured milk
Lactitol
Additivecow, via milk sugar (lactose) from whey
Lactose
Additivecow
Lanolin
Additivesheep
Lecithin
Additivehen, via egg-yolk lecithin
Lutein
Additivehen, via egg-yolk lutein
Lysozyme (E1105)
Processing agenthen
Mohair
Materialangora goat
Riboflavin
Additivecow via whey, or hen via egg white
Vitamin D3
Additivesheep, via lanolin
Whey
Additivecow
Wool
Materialsheep
Depends on Source
The same name covers a plant route and an animal one, and where the animal route involves slaughter these fail both diets. The label carries the same code either way.
Acetic Acid Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides
Additivecattle or pig, via tallow or lard
Acetic and Tartaric Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides
Additivecattle or pig, via tallow or lard
Albumin
Additivehen, or cattle where it is recovered from blood serum or milk
Ascorbyl Palmitate
AdditiveBeta-Carotene
Additivepig, cattle, or fish, via the gelatin used as a beadlet carrier or capsule shell
Calcium Phosphates
AdditiveCalcium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate
Additivecattle, sheep or pig, via tallow- or lard-derived stearic acid
Citric Acid Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides
Additivecattle or pig, via tallow or lard
DATEM
Additivecattle or pig, via animal-fat mono- and diglycerides
Disodium 5'-Ribonucleotides
Additivefish or meat animals, via extracts
Disodium Guanylate
AdditiveDisodium Inosinate
Additivefish or meat animals, via extracts
Fatty Acids
Additivecattle, pig or other livestock, via animal fat
Glycerin
Additivecattle or pig, via tallow or lard
L-Cysteine
Additiveduck or chicken feathers, pig bristle, or human hair
Lactic Acid Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides
AdditiveLipase (Fat-Splitting Enzyme)
Processing agentcalf, lamb, or kid goat
Magnesium Stearate
AdditiveMono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids
Additivecattle or pig, via tallow or lard
Natural Flavors
AdditiveOmega-3 Fatty Acids
Additivefish, or krill
Phospholipase
Processing agentpig
Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids
AdditivePolyglycerol Polyricinoleate
AdditivePolysorbate 40
Additivecattle, sheep or pig, via tallow- or lard-derived palmitic acid
Polysorbate 60
AdditivePolysorbate 65
Additivecattle, sheep or pig, via tallow- or lard-derived stearic acid
Polysorbate 80
Additivecattle, via tallow-derived oleic acid
Propane-1,2-diol Esters of Fatty Acids
Additivecattle or pig, via tallow or lard
Rennet
Additivecalf, lamb, or kid goat
Satin
MaterialSodium Potassium and Calcium Salts of Fatty Acids
Additivecattle or pig, via tallow or lard
Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
Additivecattle or pig, via animal-fat stearic acid
Sorbitan Monooleate
Additivecattle, sheep or pig, via tallow- or lard-derived oleic acid
Sorbitan Monopalmitate
Additivecattle, sheep or pig, via tallow- or lard-derived palmitic acid
Sorbitan Monostearate
AdditiveSorbitan Tristearate
Additivecattle, sheep or pig, via tallow- or lard-derived stearic acid
Squalane
Additiveshark
Sucroglycerides
Additivecattle or pig, via tallow or lard
Sucrose Esters of Fatty Acids
Additivecattle or pig, via tallow or lard
Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides
Additivecattle or pig, via tallow or lard
Tocopherols
Additivefish, via the fish-liver-oil vitamin E used in some supplement formulations
Triacetin
Additivecattle, pig or other livestock, via glycerol from animal fat
Velvet
MaterialCommon questions
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between vegan and vegetarian ingredients?
A vegetarian diet excludes animals that were killed. A vegan diet excludes animal products entirely, whether the animal survived or not. That single difference splits 21 substances in this reference into a group vegetarians can eat and vegans cannot: milk derivatives, egg derivatives, wool grease, and beeswax.
Is whey protein vegetarian?
Whey is a milk product, so it fits a vegetarian diet on the face of it. The complication sits upstream. Whey is what drains off when milk is curdled for cheese, and traditional cheesemaking curdles milk with rennet from a slaughtered calf's stomach. Vegetarians who avoid animal rennet look for whey from cheese set with microbial or fermentation-produced coagulant, which most large manufacturers now use.
Is gelatin vegetarian?
No. Gelatin is boiled out of the skin, bones, and connective tissue of pigs, cattle, or fish, which makes it a slaughter product and places it outside both diets. EU rules treat gelatine as a food ingredient instead of an additive, so it is listed by name and never as an E-number.
Is E120 carmine vegetarian?
Carmine comes from cochineal insects that are killed and crushed for the dye, so it sits outside a vegan diet without argument. Vegetarians divide on it, and most vegetarian certification schemes exclude it. The same reasoning applies to shellac.
Does a vegetarian label mean a product is nearly vegan?
It settles the harder half. A vegetarian mark rules out the slaughter-derived additives, which are the ones hardest to spot. What remains is the dairy and egg group plus the source-dependent emulsifiers, and those are exactly the ones that turn up most often in bread, chocolate, and baked goods.