Food labels. Oy! It’s one thing for a person who doesn’t have moral issues with what goes into their food. It’s quite another for those who choose not to consume enzymes from pig stomachs. For people with common food allergies- they’ve finally started listing in bold what ingredients could cause harm. But what about the emotional harm it does us when we realize lipase is a gland of a calf’s tongue? Or castoreum is the musk glands of a beaver’s butt? AH!! Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, the ex-secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, got it right when he said “The grocery store has become a Tower of Babel, and consumers need to be linguists, scientists, and mind readers to understand the many labels they see.” (Vegnews)

Even if you are aware of all the scientific terms for animal ingredients, you still might not be safe, because they may just list the ingredient as “natural flavor.” Will we ever be safe? Until they start adding the “certified vegan” logo to all packaged foods (who knows when that may be), stay alert.

Here are some bizarre ingredient names you may or may not be aware of. Thanks,Vegnews. And remember, when in doubt, stick with produce. The ingredients in a banana: banana.

VEGAN SAFE
agar-agar: thickening agent from seaweed
caramel color: food coloring and flavoring derived from corn
gluten: a mixture of proteins from wheat flour
guar gum: common vegetable gum used as a thickening agent
lactate or lactic acid: fermented from corn starch or beet sugar
lecithin: stabilizer most commonly derived from soybeans
pre-gelatinized wheat starch: starch from swelling wheat in cold water

NOT SAFE
albumen: from egg whites; used as a clarifying agent in some wines
casein: a milk protein found in soy cheeses and other “non-dairy” foods (read more here)
gelatin: protein made by boiling skin, connective tissue or bones of cows and pigs
isinglass: from sturgeon bladders; used as a clarifying agent in some wines (read more here)
lactose: sugar from mammalian milk
lanolin: a waxy fat extracted from sheep wool
acetylated lanolin ricinoleate: extract of sheep’s wool
pepsin: an enzyme from pig stomachs
rennet or rennin: a coagulating enzyme from the stomach lining of slaughtered calves
tallow: rendered beef fat
whey: the liquid remaining when casein is removed from milk
castoreum: listed as a “natural flavoring,” it is an extract from the anal musk glands of beavers; aka beaver-butt juice.
lipase: a calf-tongue-gland-derived enzyme
cochineal or carmine: ground beetle carcases (70,000 beetles = 1 lb)
musk: from the genitals of the Northern Asian hornless deer
ambergis: a waxy substance from the intestines of sperm whales
shellac: a glazing agent from the Lac bug

COULD GO EITHER WAY
L-cysteine: flavoring agent and dough enhancer produced either synthetically from petroleum or directly from duck feathers or human hair (woa!). Often obtained from Chinese barber shops
Mono- and diglycerides: coagulating agent derived from cows, pigs or vegetables
sugar: white sugar from sugar cane is sometimes filtered with activated bone charcoal- search for sugars labeled as unrefined, unbleached, or raw
vitamin D: vitamin D2 comes from yeast, but D3 (cholecalciferol) is derived from lanolin or fish and is used to fortify soymilk and infant formula
natural flavoring: this could mean a whole multitude of things. The reason they don’t have to say exactly what it is is because it generally does not serve a nutritional role.