Vegetarian: the animal ingredients that are easy to miss
Meat is never the problem. The problem is the cheese, the sweets, the beer and the sauces, where an animal ingredient did a job during manufacture and then stayed in the product.
Three versions of the same diet
Vegetarian is not one rule. A lacto-ovo vegetarian eats dairy and eggs, a lacto-vegetarian eats dairy but not eggs, and an ovo-vegetarian eats eggs but not dairy. All three exclude meat, poultry and fish. The ingredients below matter to all of them, because none of them are dairy or egg: they are animal ingredients that arrive in food by a less obvious route.
Cheese is the one people are surprised by
Traditional rennet is an enzyme taken from the stomach lining of a calf, and it is what sets the curd in a great deal of cheese. Most supermarket cheddar in Britain now uses microbial or fermentation-produced rennet, but a protected-designation cheese often may not: Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, Gorgonzola, Pecorino Romano and Manchego are all made with animal rennet as a condition of their designation.
A label may say vegetarian rennet, microbial rennet, or simply rennet, and the last of those does not tell you which. Where a cheese carries a vegetarian mark that settles it; where it does not, the traditional cheeses are the ones worth assuming about.
Sweets, desserts and anything set
Gelatin is boiled collagen from skin and bone, and it sets marshmallows, gummy sweets, mousses, some yoghurts and many low-fat products where it replaces fat. It appears as gelatine, as beef or pork gelatin, and on European labels as E441. Its plant equivalents, agar, pectin and carrageenan, are named differently, so a label naming one of those is telling you something useful.
Carmine, the red colouring made from cochineal insects, is the other common one. It appears as E120, carminic acid, natural red 4 or Cl 75470, and turns up in sweets, yoghurts, drinks and some processed meats. Shellac, E904, is an insect resin used to glaze sweets and chocolate, sometimes listed only as glazing agent.
Sauces, stocks and drinks
Worcestershire sauce is traditionally made with anchovies, which surprises people because it reads as a condiment rather than a fish product. Caesar dressing usually contains anchovy too. Many Southeast Asian sauces are built on fish or shrimp: fish sauce, oyster sauce, shrimp paste and belacan are all commonly used where a label might say only seasoning.
Beer and wine are the other blind spot. Isinglass, made from fish swim bladders, is a traditional fining agent used to clear beer, and gelatin is used the same way in some wines. Neither remains in the finished drink in any meaningful quantity, and neither has to be declared, which is why vegetarian and vegan certification exists for drinks at all.
Names worth knowing
Ingredients worth recognising on sight, with the other names each one appears under. Meat under its own name is left out; these are the ones that arrive by a less obvious route.
A selection, not the full list.
Check a whole label at once
Recognising these by eye is the hard way to do it. Photograph the ingredients panel and NoshWise reads every line against this profile, names what to avoid, and says why.
Scan a labelCommon questions
Is Parmesan vegetarian?
Parmigiano Reggiano is not. Animal rennet is required by its protected designation of origin, and the same is true of Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano, Gorgonzola and Manchego. Cheeses sold as parmesan style without the protected name may use microbial rennet, and should say so.
Is beer vegetarian?
Often, but not reliably. Isinglass, made from fish swim bladders, is a traditional fining agent used to clear beer, and it does not have to be declared. Many breweries have moved away from it and will say so, and vegan certification on the bottle is the dependable signal.
Is Worcestershire sauce vegetarian?
Traditional Worcestershire sauce is made with anchovies and is not vegetarian. Vegetarian versions are sold and are labelled as such, so the label is worth reading rather than assuming from the product type.
Is E441 vegetarian?
No. E441 is gelatin, made from animal collagen, usually pork or beef. The plant-based setting agents are named differently: agar, pectin and carrageenan.
Are marshmallows vegetarian?
Usually not. Conventional marshmallows are set with gelatin. Vegetarian and vegan marshmallows exist and use agar or other plant gelling agents instead.
Other guides
- Vegan: the animal ingredients that hide on a label
- Halal: the ingredients a label leaves unresolved
- Celiac and gluten: the ingredients that catch people out
- Buddhist vegetarian: what a label does not tell you
- Jain: the ingredients a label will not flag for you
- Kosher: why the ingredients list cannot settle it
- Kidney diet: the phosphorus that is not in the nutrition table
- Milk allergy and lactose intolerance are not the same problem
- Peanut and tree nut allergy are two different things
- Soy allergy: the two questions worth separating
- Fish allergy: where fish arrives without the word fish
- Shellfish allergy: two groups, declared separately
- Wheat allergy is not the same as celiac disease