A question to all vegetarians. What will be your reaction when you find out that some of the common stuff you have been eating all along have unfamiliar animal (derived) ingredients? I was shocked to the core. That's the least I can explain how I felt.
I won't call myself (our family too) a staunch vegetarian because we have eaten eggs in one form or the other. We don't bring it home, but enjoy store bought baked goods (some of which may contain lard also, who knows?), ice cream etc. But that too has reduced a lot since I started baking. I really can't remember the last time I bought a cake or a muffin. Sometimes I get cookies/bars for my son, but keep checking the ingredients list for eggs and/or any other animal fat like lard, tallow or gelatin. I also check the nutrition table for the fat content, sugar, fiber, protein etc for cereals and other processed goods.
I'm sure many of us do all these things. But how many of you have seen the ingredients list in yogurt, cheese, chips? At least I have not even thought about it until Monday (day before yesterday) night. How in God's name do I know that they are adding animal derived ingredients in yogurt and cheese? May be some of you might already know it but I have been ignorant about it until recently. So those of you who don't know it already, here's the bitter truth; some of the brands of yogurt (especially low fat) contain gelatin and cheese contain rennet/rennin. I found it in the Veggie Boards forum.
I know that gelatin is derived from animal bones and it's an ingredient in marshmallows, Jello, so I don't buy those stuff. I also check for it in other processed goods. I also know that agar is the vegetarian substitute for gelatin. But not in my wildest dreams I would have guessed that gelatin was included in low fat yogurt as well. We regularly buy non fat/low fat yogurt and I don't know what I have been eating all these years. It doesn't stop with yogurt. Pork derived gelatin is added in some brands of BBQ flavored potato chips, in Altoids, Tic Tac and other mints too. Didn't I tell you that ignorance is bliss?
Another innocent product masquerading as vegetarian is cheese. We are not big cheese lovers. Actually I try to make pizzas and pastas without cheese. But we do enjoy a slice of cheese pizza occasionally and I have been getting cheese sticks and slices for my son for his snack. It has never occurred to me to check the ingredients list. Why would I, because I know that it's made with cow's milk and all vegetarian cookbooks mention the use of cheese. Guess what? some of the brands have rennet (it's an enzyme). To make it simple, rennet is derived from the stomach of dead calves. The actual process is really gross. If you have the guts to read it check it out here. If reading about rennet freaked you out, don't even think about finding out what carmine is.
I immediately ran to the kitchen to raid my fridge. Luckily, the yogurt I bought had agar and it was clearly mentioned in bold letters under the name of the yogurt "No Gelatin". It's been a month since we moved to Canada and I have been buying this brand of yogurt since then, but never once I have noticed the brightly colored bold letters. For those living in Canada, it's the Astro brand. I have to check the other brands the next time I go grocery shopping. I also checked the flavored yogurt (Irresistables) I had bought and was relieved to see it had locust bean gum. It's a vegetable gum extracted from the seeds of carob tree. I read in the same forum that Activia brand yogurt has gelatin but have to check it out for myself. I had also bought shredded part skim 3 cheese (for pizza) after a very long time, so that was the next thing I checked. I guess I was lucky this time because this brand had used microbial enzymes (which is neither animal derived nor vegetable derived but from microbes, which is considered vegetarian though). I also read in the same forum that (Update: some of) the cheese available in Trader's Joe and Whole Foods is vegetarian.
Apparently there is vegetable derived rennet as well which small producers use to make their specialty cheese. But I'm sure that if a company uses vegetable derived rennet they will be using it as a good marketing strategy to promote their product. So unless and otherwise it is specified clearly we wouldn't know the origin of the enzyme if simply rennet is printed in the ingredients list. For example the brand of cheese I bought this time was Kraft (3 cheese Pizza). They have microbial enzymes listed and I checked with other ingredients too and don't find anything animal derived, so I'm assuming it's vegetarian. (Update: The Kraft brand cheese I have mentioned also lists lipase in the ingredients. When searching for information about it I see that, like rennet, lipase can also be derived from animals or microbes. So unless we hear from Kraft about the origin of the lipase we cannot assume that it's vegetarian). Or the best bet is to contact Kraft/or any other company before using their products.
I went through Kraft Canada's website and found that the cheese powder they use in their Mac and Cheese dinner uses animal derived rennet. The source of rennet in the regular cheese was not mentioned clearly, so I have sent them an email. It's mentioned that they use pure Rennet, a natural substance for turning milk to curds and whey. Is pure vegetarian? we don't know that yet. The pack also mentions shredded natural cheese. Does natural mean vegetarian? We don't know that too. Wish these companies can have some symbol to denote their products are vegetarian, like they have a green circle in India.
In this day and age of processed foods which has a long list of unfamiliar chemical names it's very difficult (but possible) to identify if a particular ingredient is animal derived or not. Also we cannot go animal-free totally because some of the medication we take contains animal derived ingredients as well. For example, capsules are made with the very same animal derived gelatin. There are some vegetarian gelatin based capsules which clearly mention VegCaps in their pack. The multivitamins/vaccinations we take contains all type of animal/fish products.
So what's the purpose of this post then? To create little awareness so that some of us (vegetarians) who already don't check the ingredients while buying processed food will check it out hereafter!
Some links which might be helpful (I have not checked any of the products, so be sure to check it for yourself before buying)
sai says
also pectin is the vegetable alternative to gelatin. so natural yogurts use pectin.
sai says
Oh hmm its shocking if u come across it first time. I have known it luckily since we came to US and i keep advising my friends against danon and other yogurt (yoplait etc) with gelatin. I always use home made and if needed buy the old country home (which does not have gelatin). same with cheese. I always go for rennet free organic. I always go for organic in dairy as much as possible. donuts have lards. some kellogs bars have gelatin. all the fruit snacks have gelatin but for natural ones. just so u may know.
Sure, thanks Sai.
Rupa says
When I lived in Canada, I discovered that Cheese has rennet/pepsin
enzymes. But Yogourt one is new to me...I buy Organic Trader Joe's brand,
will call/check what they put in that. As for Marshmallows,
that's why I don't buy them. By the way, even the Jello has
animal derived Gelatin in it. So buy the Gelatin free packets(powder)
from Desi store and make it. Or you can buy Gelatin free
mango/orange/peach flavored Jello cups in Trader Joe's.
As for the growth hormones, Canada doesn't use them on cows but
US does. That's why when I moved from Canada to US, I switched to
organic milk. Thanks for an informative post!
Asha says
Hi Madhu, happy Father's day to your hubby. We got up early to make something special! 🙂
Yeah! Even I was surprised at all the hoopla about that post and read my own post twice too to see what's wrong. I think some just have too much time in the day to over think, so I wouldn't worry about that! 😀 I saw on Indian channel TV yesterday about some kind of artificial Butter sold in India made of animal fat and skin etc. It was really scary even to see them making it. That's why I say, we better eat the real thing like real butter and real sugar in less quantity than using Splenda and Butter like products.
Well..we are getting ready to fly to Hawaii in 6 days, got to pack, see you later! 🙂
Ramya says
Dear Madhu,
A very informative piece of information indeed! I was also amazed by the animal derived products in every day used items by lacto vegetarians like me. Also, just to let you know, most of the breads baked use an ingredient called mono and di glycerides. This chemical is animal derived in most of the cases unless mentioned as vegetable mono and di glycerides. I believe this is found in a lot more products than just breads, but since I have noticed it in breads I avoid buying them. I try to use freshly baked bread from whole foods or Trader Joes.
We also used to eat eggs once upon a time, but we are getting more conscious of the animals around us and hence we opted to go lacto vegetarians.
Ramya
Thanks for the comments Ramya. I will also check for the glycerides hereafter.
dee says
Madhu.. most yogurt brands have rennin/rennet .. gelatin etc. its always good to see the ingredients list before you buy.. so much so.. in the same brand.. some are rennet free and some are not .. cheeses like stilton and roquefort ..have rennet in them .. but some stores sell these cheeses with vegetarian rennet in them. dont know what that is though.. I have learnt from experience too..:)
malavika says
Hi,
I am vegetarian who has turned to vegan recently ..they are so may vegan website which tell the list of products ..my favorite being “SKINNY BITCH” and the listed products in the website. If u have time you might want to read the book ..it’s says everything about the meat, dairy industry.. Another book is meat. And think about this …you are no more a vegetarian if you drink milk with is not organic.. Not only the animals a injected growth hormones but they are feed animal products(evidence-- remember the mad cow disease ..“A British inquiry into BSE concluded that the epidemic was caused by cattle, who are normally herbivores, being fed the remains of other cattle in the form of meat and bone meal (MBM), which caused the infectious agent to spread.” ..
Please research about this ..I care that’s what I share this information ..
Thanks Malavika. I too have heard lot about SB, will see if I can get it in the library.
Shailly says
Hi Madhuram,
Thanks for posting it on your site. I came to know about the gelatin content in Yogurt and renner in Cheese almost a year back. So i always prepare yogurt at home and never buy it from the market. As far as cheese is concerned, i ensure that i check the ingredients before buying.
Carla says
Wow. Thanks for the warning. I usually won't buy something unless I recognize the ingredients, but cheese was the last place I thought to look. Maybe I'll work up the stomach to read some of the links you posted...
2Bs mommy says
Hi
Reached here blog hopping. We are same as you - vegetarian but don't mind eating bakery food with eggs. I came to know about gelatin in yogurt about 10yrs back - I was SHOCKED, very upset that for the initial 2 years here I used yogurt with gelatin as ingredient. I immediately called a friend of mine who is a Muslim and I knew that she used the same yogurt and told her about the gelatin in yogurt - you can imagine how shocked she was too since it wasn't halal. Coming from India, who would have thought that here in western world people add gelatin to something as simple as yogurt. Since then started checking each and every product including butter. Did you know that some of the margarine have animal fat too ! and some brands of frozen fries ( beef fat) ! Gosh !! Yeah, not surprisingly, I too have started cooking lot of stuff at home now and avoiding processed/packaged food as much as I can. I don't buy chips of any other flavour than 'ready salted'. For about two years I let my son have marshmallows too until I found out they have gelatin too. Unbelievable! Well I can go on and on, but just wanted to say that its great that you put up this post for your readers, wish I had come across some writing about these things before I came to NZ all those years back. Good on you!
Welcome here 2Bsmommy. I have checked/check almost all products but I didn't even give a second of thought that something which is as vegetarian as yogurt/cheese, which we know comes from milk, will have added animal derivatives. We too stick to the regular, less sodium potato chips, if at all we buy or the baked ones.
Manvantara says
Well, a lot of commercially available ice cream usually has either eggs and/or gelatin. Different types of pasta have eggs in them. Some frozen potatoes have beef tallow. Some brands of wheat frosties (breakfast cereal) have gelatin, I think.
PETA has information on which fast food joints have items to avoid. For instance, the bean burrito at Taco Bell has sour cream that has gelatin in it.
Yes I have seen in eggs listed in some ice creams. The Edys Slow churned Vanilla doesn't have eggs, the list of ingredients is also small, if I remember right. I'll check the PETA website. Thanks Manvantara. I also came to know recently that the veggie patties in Subway has egg whites.
Bharti says
Yup! I kinda am aware of all the stuff you've mentioned. I try not to be anal but I don't believe that ignorance is bliss. As far as the yogurts are concerned, I find that a lot of store brand ones are the one with gelatin in it. I found one supposedly organic one with cornflour. It was gross even if the cornflour was organic. Yogurt is supposed to be just plain old milk fermented. I try to make mine at home as much as possible but otherwise buy European style or Australian style yogurt which is usually free of thickeners.
That's what I too don't understand, why something else in yogurt? I better start making it at home.strong>
Gayatri says
Hi Madhu,
Am a regular follower of ur blog and this post has a significance. We r abroad now on my hubby's project, and I do check labels regularly (even yogurts), as my daughter is allergic to certain food types, and also to make sure they're all vegetarian ingredients. As Deepali rightly pointed out, people in the West can hardly make anything without eggs/meat. So much so that we wouldn't buy anything if the ingredients are vegetarian with a note underneath that says "Manufactured in a plant that processes egg, fish and crustacea". I even resorted to baking cookies for my 2 year old, since our options were very limited with vegetarian. Nowadays, I occasionally buy biscuits that has veg ingredients and is manufactured in equipment that processes eggs only...Thankfully, the yogurt and cheese that I've bought do not have any animal ingredients in their labels as I check for them too (I hope the labels speak the truth). A few days ago, I chanced to see a European pastry pack with rennet as an ingredient in it. Another said vegetarian rennet, so I decided to check out what it was (I didn't buy both pastries), but kept postponing, and finally did it this morning. I got the same shock as u did, to learn abt rennet in cheese (from the same veggie website). I have come across cheese labels that use egg whites or something like that, but animal fat in what we consider safe and vegetarian?? gave me the shivers. that's when i saw ur post. In India, the green label is there, but still I feel there should be more transparency in listing the ingredients (I guess products like cheese do not carry detailed ingredients).
Gayatri, thank you very much for taking your time to record your comments here.
Deepali Kallidai says
Hi,
I knew that rennet can be either veggie or not. Here in west people can hardly make things without eggs or animal product. Trick is to look for 'Suitable for Vegetarians' sign and check if it has eggs in 'Allergy Advice'. I never buy if it doesn't have this sign. I would also like to advice everyone that never buy any product without reading labels even though u have been buying that for years, as they do change ingredients. This is what happened with me- Last year i bought same brand drinking fruit yogurt for my son as usual. Next day while giving him, I casually looked at the pack and I was horrified to see fish oil(omega 3) in the list. Now, I never buy anything without looking. Here in UK even Icing sugar has traces of eggs. Am not sure about Canada.
Deepali, I really feel so dumb for not knowing about rennet all these days, when so many of you have known this for a long time. But I have learnt my lesson now, check before you buy.
sheila says
your post is informative.
I have been a vegetarian all my life and which meant that I do not wear silk or use leather products.some of the indian sweets use Varakh (Silver Foil)and In india they have green red sticker but surprisingly the sweets which use silver foil do not have the red/green indicator. I have been using palm sugar and in the US i have bought the organic sugar.
Thank you for your post!!!
Thanks Sheila. I did hear about the process of making Varakh while in India and have steered clear from sweets which use it.
RedChillies says
We are pretty much like you, we do not eat eggs at home but we do eat bakery products from the outside. Glad that I learnt about carmine and rennet. I will keep an eye on them.
I think avoiding carmine is difficult than avoiding rennet.
Manvantara says
Madhuram, what is your email address? I have some more to write to you but there is a 100 character limit (maybe there is a reason for that! 😀 ). Mine is anuchellappa at yahoo dot com.
I will send an email or you can use the contact form to send me an email. I will also increase the character limit here. I would appreciate if you would record your comments here because others too can benefit from it.
Sweatha says
I agree with Aparna as well.I got lucky in that case.the green vegetarian label is a good indicator
Sweatha says
I agree with DK.Better go for whole fat ygrt/milk.
I used to go for whole fat(no gelatin added) normally thgh I tried the low fat versions as well.The RENNET thing is shocking.I have heard abt rennet but never ever tried to find out what it was
Lesson Learnt: Check for ingredients and make sure there are no animal content.
Actually I was as shocked when I came to know about marshmallow.
Never knew about it.Thanks for the info on rennet and generally cheese.
I dare not check carmine.
Thanks Sweatha. I think we (at least in US) are exposed to carmine more than rennet. I may be wrong, I'm not sure.
Manvantara says
Hi Madhu,
Glad you stumbled across this - that packaged yogurt sometimes has gelatin and that cheese usually has gelatin. Not all the cheese available at Trader Joe's is rennet free, btw. I have found some cheese at Costco that does not have rennet.
A lot of pasta usually has eggs and there are some times of buns/breads that have eggs (when I looked for "hotdog buns" to go with pau bhaji that is what I discovered, those have egg yolks.
The good thing about the US or Canada is that food items are labeled (hopefully truthfully!).So we have a good idea about what we are eating.
Somewhere I read that Horlicks used to have fish scales! And that Ovaltine has egg whites. I have not bothered to check the labels, though.
And what about white sugar? It is processed with bone char....
So where does it stop??
What I have learnt is that the minute a food is "processed" or "refined" or cooked, there are ingredients that are either not vegetarian or not healthy for us.
You might be interested in a book called "Twinkie, deconstructed", which gives a fairly good idea about the ingredients that food manufacturers add to their products to increase shelf life, to make it more palatable" (who cares about health?!), etc.
I have been following your blog for some months now, ever since my mom stumbled on it. I have a recipe in mind for your baking event which I am sure will win it, so your giveaway better be good, ha! 😆
Welcome to my blog Manvantara. I ran to check the Ovaltine and did see that the chocolate flavor has dried egg yolks, but the malt flavor doesn't have anything, at least apparently. I buy it for my son. Actually the brand I used in US did not have any egg yolks, I'm sure I checked it, so I did not care to look it here as well. I came to know about the refining process of sugar after reading some book. But am I ready to give up sugar? Not yet! Sounds like hypocrisy! I'll check out the book you have mentioned.
Please do send your entry for the event. At this moment I'm thinking using random.org to select the prize winning entry.