Usually, anything printed in very small print does not carry any good news. This is true for you if you have a credit card and are worried about hidden charges, if you are a Facebook user and are worried about your privacy settings, or if you are a vegetarian and want to eat a banana without fish or a donut without duck feathers…
Oh what?
It’s not news that sometimes ingredient labels can be as confusing and complex as Game of Thrones storylines, but it’s important for us to know one thing: whether or not what we’re about to eat has animal ingredients in it.
Of course, not all manufacturers suffer from the fact that they add non-vegetarian ingredients everywhere, but still …
White refined sugar – animal bones
Many Russian vegetarians are aware that the process of refining white sugar involves passing through “bone charcoal”, burnt cattle bones. Brown sugar can be “guilty” too, so it’s best to follow healthy eating tips and not eat sugar at all.
Vanilla ice cream – beaver stream
The “natural flavor” listed on a store-bought vanilla ice cream label could be a beaver squirt. Castoreum is the scientific name for the odorous, brown liquid that beavers use to mark their territory. Scientists use it to flavor foods with vanilla.
We can only advise avoiding vanilla products that contain this mysterious “natural flavor”.
Orange juice – fish oil and sheep’s wool
In order to rightfully claim that orange juice is good for health, manufacturers often add Omega-3 acids – either synthetic or … from anchovies, tilapia and sardines. Yes, and the vitamin D in juice may come from lanolin, a wax-like substance found in sheep’s wool. We know for sure that PepsiCo and Tropicana are not seen in this.
bananas — molluscs
According to Science Daily, chitosan, a bacterial-fighting substance made from shrimp and crab shells, has become the basis for a special spray that is sprayed on banana skins so that they retain their appearance longer and do not deteriorate.
Donuts – feathers
Ovolacto-vegetarians probably indulge in donuts occasionally. Did you know that large chains use a mixture containing the L. Cysteine enzyme as a baking powder for flour? And they take it from … feathers of ducks and chickens (and even it can be obtained from human hair). There is information that such baking powder is in Dunkin Donuts, and also in Pizza Hut garlic bread.
Candy red – crushed bugs
And not just candy, a wide variety of red foods (including wine, vinegar, colored pasta, yogurt, etc.) contain carmine, a pigment that comes from the female beetle Dactylopius coccus.
Caramels – the secret of bugs
The hard coating for sweets is made from shellac, a secretion of the females of some species of beetles, similar in properties to rubber. It is also used to make a fashionable coating for nails, as well as furniture polish, some hair sprays and sprayers in agriculture. Fortunately, M&Ms are safe)))
Beer and wine – fish swim bladder
We sincerely hope that you do not drink alcoholic beverages. But still it is worth being aware that in the production of many English alcoholic beverages gelatin is used from the swim bladders of freshwater fish. Gelatin is used in the purification process.
Salted peanuts – pork hooves
Some brands add gelatin to their peanuts to help salt and other seasonings stick to them better. And gelatin is extracted from collagen from the bones, hooves and connective tissues of cows and pigs.
Potato chips – chicken fat
First of all, this applies to barbecue-flavored chips – chicken fat is most often added there.
Authorized translation Vegetarian.ru