Canned food-Is it vegetarian?

[bs624r]

I have just started becoming a vegetarian and I was looking through my cupboard. How do I tell if certain foods are completly vegetarian. Like Cambell's Spaghettios, I don't think it would, but I want to do this right. I am guessing that some do, so what do I look for in general to see what is vegetarian or not?

[cerealkiller]

things can be a little tricky when you first start reading labels. check out this guide for a fairly comprehensive list of animal-derived ingredients... http://www.happycow.net/health-animal-ingredients.html

if you're solely vegetarian at this point (as opposed to going vegan straight-away), the main things to watch out for are - gelatin, beef/chicken stock or fat, lard, animal shortening, rennet (if not specified as "vegetable rennet"), fish oil, anchovies/anchovy paste, mono- and diglycerides not specified as "vegetable", stearic acid (almost any "stearic/stearoyl" ingredient), fatty acids, tallow, and Vitamin D3.

try not to be overwhelmed. just do your best and the memorization will come in time.

[amaroque]

A quick surface scan is to jump to the bottom of the ingredient list and it will tell you if it contains eggs, milk, soy, gluten etc for allergen information. Beyond that you need to be familiar with certain ingredients (casein or whey - from milk), gelatin. There are numerous others but sometimes it takes a call to the company to really find out.

Here is a website called Is it Vegan? http://isitvegan.com/ that answers specific questions. Got to go for now.

[Beachbnny]

things can be a little tricky when you first start reading labels. check out this guide for a fairly comprehensive list of animal-derived ingredients... http://www.happycow.net/health-animal-ingredients.html

if you're solely vegetarian at this point (as opposed to going vegan straight-away), the main things to watch out for are - gelatin, beef/chicken stock or fat, lard, animal shortening, rennet (if not specified as "vegetable rennet"), fish oil, anchovies/anchovy paste, mono- and diglycerides not specified as "vegetable", stearic acid (almost any "stearic/stearoyl" ingredient), fatty acids, tallow, and Vitamin D3.

try not to be overwhelmed. just do your best and the memorization will come in time.

Of all the years I've been vegetarian, I never avoided that much. When I was vegan, definitely. "Mono- and diglycerides not specified as vegetable, any "stearic/stearoyl" ingredient, and D3" did not fit my vegetarian guidelines.

My advice: Take it easy on yourself. You're doing a wonderful thing and it gets much easier with time. I promise. The short list to avoid is this:

Meat, fish, Animal Broths, Gelatin, Rennet.

That's it. But that does include lard, and little things like anchovies in worcestershire sauce. When in doubt, ask.

[cerealkiller]

Of all the years I've been vegetarian, I never avoided that much. When I was vegan, definitely. "Mono- and diglycerides not specified as vegetable, any "stearic/stearoyl" ingredient, and D3" did not fit my vegetarian guidelines.

The short list to avoid is this:

Meat, fish, Animal Broths, Gelatin, Rennet.




Well, I didn't know about rennet for the first handful of years when I was vegetarian. Once I learned what it was, I steered clear of it. If someone had told me about the glycerides back then, too, I would have asked individual companies about that, too. Just a personal thing, though.

I stated it can be overwhelming when you first start out (if you're trying to avoid everything). I agree about taking it easy on yourself at first.

[sleepydvdr]

Most huge corporation junk foods like Spaghetti-Os have non-vegetarian ingredients. What comes to mind for a product like that would be the rennet used to make the cheese.

If I see more than 20 ingredients on a package, I usually look elsewhere. The full list of non-veg ingredients is huge. And a lot of them are impossible to tell just by the ingredient alone. Many can be sourced from plant or animal.

If you don't stand to lose a ton of money, I suggest maybe donating the questionable foods and writing them off your taxes.