Think That Food You're Eating Is Vegetarian?

[SalixIncendium]

Think again...

15 Surprising Foods That Aren't Vegetarian Or Vegan, Even Though They Seem Like They Would Be

How many of you vegetarians were unknowingly eating animal product?

I knew several of these contained animal product, but I'll admit I was taken by surprise when I read about white sugar.

 

[Polymath257]

*looking up from my burger*

No, no, I didn't.

 

[exchemist]

Think again...

15 Surprising Foods That Aren't Vegetarian Or Vegan, Even Though They Seem Like They Would Be

How many of you vegetarians were unknowingly eating animal product?

I knew several of these contained animal product, but I'll admit I was taken by surprise when I read about white sugar.

I think the rennet one for cheese is fairly well-known. Gelatine maybe less so.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I think the rennet one for cheese is fairly well-known. Gelatine maybe less so.

I knew about the gelatin, and have actively avoided gummies, jello, etc., but I was unaware of the rennet. Kinda makes me sad, as I really like cheese and that was a major source of my protein.

 

[Sirona]

Some Hare Krishnas in Germany offer a "cheese list". They went to the trouble of writing to all cheese manufacturers in Germany to ask which brands of cheese were free of animal rennet. I don't know if microbial rennet is okay, but I guess microbes don't count as "animals". If there is no such list for your country yet, it might be a worthwhile task to compile one for your own country.

 

[We Never Know]

Think again...

15 Surprising Foods That Aren't Vegetarian Or Vegan, Even Though They Seem Like They Would Be

How many of you vegetarians were unknowingly eating animal product?

I knew several of these contained animal product, but I'll admit I was taken by surprise when I read about white sugar.

Are bugs/insects vegan? Bon appetit!

A new study from an insect control company estimated that we eat, on average, 140,000 'bug bits' every year. Mealworm, maggot, and roach pieces are found in everyday foods like chocolate, coffee, and wheat flour. It's totally legal: The FDA allows small amounts of insect matter in our food."

https://www-businessinsider-com.cdn...insider.com/foods-full-of-insects-bugs-2017-6

 

[ChristineM]

but I was unaware of the rennet.

You can get vegetarian rennet made from plants if you fancy making your pwn cheese.
And many soft cheeses don't use rennet.

 

[mangalavara]

I knew about the gelatin, and have actively avoided gummies, jello, etc., but I was unaware of the rennet. Kinda makes me sad, as I really like cheese and that was a major source of my protein.

This reminds me that on food packages in Korea, there is a small area that lists certain ingredients for people with food allergies, and vegetarians. Gummies and the like always say ‘beef’ or ‘pork’ in Korean. Many chocolate products made in Korea also say ‘beef’ on them.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Think again...

15 Surprising Foods That Aren't Vegetarian Or Vegan, Even Though They Seem Like They Would Be

How many of you vegetarians were unknowingly eating animal product?

I knew several of these contained animal product, but I'll admit I was taken by surprise when I read about white sugar.

Now I want to go get stuff with the L-cstuff that I know now it's me eating all you cretins!

 

[Yerda]

I knew several of these contained animal product, but I'll admit I was taken by surprise when I read about white sugar.

That was news to me too and I've been checking labels for 20 years looking for animal products. Never even thought to look at the sugar.

 

[mangalavara]

Think again...

15 Surprising Foods That Aren't Vegetarian Or Vegan, Even Though They Seem Like They Would Be

How many of you vegetarians were unknowingly eating animal product?

I knew several of these contained animal product, but I'll admit I was taken by surprise when I read about white sugar.

I would like to mention that my understanding of vegetarianism—and this might be controversial to some people—is that vegetarianism is the practice of not eating animal flesh. That’s literally all there is to it. On the other hand, veganism is the practice of abstaining from animal flesh and all animal by-products, orally and otherwise. For this reason, I consider gummies, for instance, vegetarian.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I would like to mention that my understanding of vegetarianism—and this might be controversial to some people—is that vegetarianism is the practice of not eating animal flesh. That’s literally all there is to it. On the other hand, veganism is the practice of abstaining from animal flesh and all animal by-products, orally and otherwise. For this reason, I consider gummies, for instance, vegetarian.

I will eat things animals produce naturally, i.e. dairy and unfertilized eggs. I won't eat any animal parts, including, but not limited to bones, hooves, fat, etc.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Are bugs/insects vegan? Bon appetit!

A new study from an insect control company estimated that we eat, on average, 140,000 'bug bits' every year. Mealworm, maggot, and roach pieces are found in everyday foods like chocolate, coffee, and wheat flour. It's totally legal: The FDA allows small amounts of insect matter in our food."

https://www-businessinsider-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.businessinsider.com/foods-full-of-insects-bugs-2017-6?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&amp&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw==#aoh=16632498275994&referrer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From %1$s&ampshare=https://www.businessinsider.com/foods-full-of-insects-bugs-2017-6

I pick them out.

 

[exchemist]

I knew about the gelatin, and have actively avoided gummies, jello, etc., but I was unaware of the rennet. Kinda makes me sad, as I really like cheese and that was a major source of my protein.

In fact, you may be able to relax a bit. I see this is what Wiki has to say about substitutes:

Because of the imperfections and scarcity of microbial and animal rennets, producers sought replacements. With the development of genetic engineering, it became possible to extract rennet-producing genes from animal stomach and insert them into certain bacteria, fungi or yeasts to make them produce chymosin during fermentation.[11][12] The genetically modified microorganism is killed after fermentation and chymosin is isolated from the fermentation broth, so that the fermentation-produced chymosin (FPC) used by cheese producers does not contain any GM component or ingredient.[13] FPC contains the identical chymosin as the animal source, but produced in a more efficient way. FPC products have been on the market since 1990 and are considered the ideal milk-clotting enzyme.[14]

FPC was the first artificially produced enzyme to be registered and allowed by the US Food and Drug Administration. In 1999, about 60% of US hard cheese was made with FPC[15] and it has up to 80% of the global market share for rennet.[16]

By 2008, approximately 80% to 90% of commercially made cheeses in the US and Britain were made using FPC.[13] The most widely used fermentation-produced chymosin is produced either using the fungus Aspergillus niger or using Kluyveromyces lactis.

FPC contains only chymosin B,[17] achieving a higher degree of purity compared with animal rennet. FPC can deliver several benefits to the cheese producer compared with animal or microbial rennet, such as higher production yield, better curd texture and reduced bitterness.[14]

So it looks as if today most cheesemaking uses FPC (fermentation-produced chymosin), generated by GM yeasts, not from animals at all, save in the sense that they contributed their genes to make it possible.

Mind you, the 80-90% they talk about may be the industrial "cheese" that you and I would never dream of eating.......

But worth a discussion with the cheesemonger, at least.

 

[Secret Chief]

I'm sure we all consume things we don't intend to. Enjoying that shiny apple? Maybe it's shiny cos it's coated in shellac.
Do any of us want to be consuming micro-plastics? I'm guessing not.