16 Foods You Might Think Are Vegan, When They Actually Aren’t!

If all that glitters is not gold, at the same time even apparently vegan products may not be actually vegan, and much more often than you might think. At a time when consumers are increasingly interested in plant-based foods , it may be that finding your way around supermarket shelves is not easy: it is not uncommon, in fact, for a food or drink to have “hidden” ingredients.

They can be lard, butter or milk in bread or focaccias, easily identifiable on the label, but which perhaps we do not pay due attention to when ordering at the baker's counter. Or others with which we are less familiar: we are talking about food additives, present in sweets, crisps in packets and spreadable creams, which according to the EFSA definition "are substances deliberately added to food products to perform certain technological functions, for example to color, sweeten or preserve". As regulated by the FDA, these elements must always be visible on the packaging, recognizable as they are universally indicated with a specific name rather than a code.

The misunderstanding occurs not only because these names are little known, but also because additives can have different origins: synthesized in the laboratory, from plant or animal sources, a detail that is not mandatory to declare, with the result that in cases of ambiguity the only solution is to contact the manufacturer. Let's see which are the vegan foods that it is best to pay particular attention to when purchasing.

1. Bread, Piadinas, Focaccias

We know that the doughs of these foods so common on our tables can be made with various ingredients, including fats of vegetable origin, such as oil, but also of animal origin, for example milk, butter and lard, which also characterize traditional products, for example the beloved piadina. In addition, to brown the surface, it is possible that the classic brushing with egg was also given.

2. Gummy Candies, Chewing Gum and Sweets

It is not news that especially in gummy candies there can be hidden ingredients that come from animals: the best known is undoubtedly gelatine, which in the U.S. is obtained for 80% from pork rind, and can also come from cattle and fish. However, there are others, less known: it is possible to identify on the label also beeswax (extracted from honeycombs) and shellac (derived from cochineal, an insect), both coating agents to aesthetically embellish the product. The bright red color can be given by a dye called carmine, also obtained from cochineal.

3. Breakfast Cereals

Casein, the major protein in milk, and whey may appear in breakfast cereals, both added to the other ingredients: be careful also of honey, which is often present. Very widespread in the food industry, instead of just casein, it would be more correct to speak of caseinates, or a set of additives that all derive from milk, used mainly in powder form for various purposes: emulsifiers, binders or whiteners and which are also found in liqueurs, sandwich bread and wines.

4. Bagged Chips

In ultra-processed foods, the list of food additives is usually very long: bagged chips are no exception, especially the flavored ones. These have a high probability of containing substances of animal origin such as milk, whey and lactose, used to give greater fragrance and shelf life to the product; sometimes there is also tallow, or fat that comes from the internal organs of cattle used as the internal lining of the bags or in frying, to increase the crunchiness.

5. Chocolate and Spreadable Creams

While it is clear that milk chocolate cannot be vegan, at the same time it is correct to have doubts about dark chocolate. The reason is easy to explain: it can mainly contain anhydrous butter or lecithin. The first could be compared to clarified butter, it is composed of almost 99% fat and is also known as butter oil, widely used in pastry making because, being free of water and proteins, it guarantees less perishability. The second is a food additive with the purpose of emulsifying and stabilizing: its origin is often dubious, because most of the time it is isolated from soy or egg yolk.

6. Brown Sugar

It is often associated with a healthier alternative to white sugar: we are talking about cane sugar. Those who follow a vegan diet and share its philosophy will know that they cannot consume it because of the animal carbon used in its refining phase. Animal carbon is a compound that derives from the combustion of bovine bones (it is in fact also called bone black) and is not present in the finished product: despite this, it is incompatible with veganism, which does not include the use of animal derivatives in any process of the supply chain.

7. Fruit Juices, Herbal Teas and Drinks

You also have to be careful about what you drink: for example, in some fruit juices or cocktails  you can find natural food colorings such as carmine derived from cochineal, seen previously, which serves to give a more pronounced shade of red, or in protein drinks whey could appear. Just as in multivitamin juices, you have to check the origin of vitamin D and omega-3 combined during the preparation phase: the first is obtained from lanolin (sheep's wool), while the latter mainly from oily fish, even if there is no lack of vegetable sources such as dried fruit and seeds.

8. Wine and Beer

If you see more and more vegan beers and wines on the market, this means that they are not vegan by default. In both cases, in fact, elements of animal origin are used in the processing, with different objectives. The most common in wine are gelatine and isinglass, used for clarification, casein which both clarifies and prevents oxidation and albumin, an ally of red wine to make it less bitter and astringent. In beer, there is room for gelatine, isinglass, cochineal for coloring and pepsin, useful for stabilizing the foam, which is obtained from the gastric mucosa of pigs. The problem arises because, being ingredients used in minimal quantities, they do not necessarily have to be included on the label.