In a world of processed foods, added sugars, trans fats, chemical additives, and GMOs, it can be hard to know if what your eating is vegan or not. There are actually lots of foods, which people think are vegan, but actually have animal products in them. We don’t want you to be in the dark about these secretly non-vegan foods, so we did some digging and found some pretty surprising results. We hope this helps in your quest to keep eating a healthy, vegan diet.
Frozen French Fries
It’s hard to believe that these aren’t just potatoes. Some, not all, frozen French fries are cooked in animal fat before they are frozen. Make sure you read the label to find out if they were. It will be beneficial to cut these out of your diet because they are loaded with chemical additives and processed ingredients.
Worcestershire Sauce
This classic sauce is notoriously made with anchovies to achieve its flavor. There are, however, brands that don’t use anchovies, which make it vegan friendly.
Chip
While this isn’t true for all chips, a lot of chips are made with pork enzymes. If you glance over the ingredients, you might miss “porcine enzymes.” Be on the lookout for this ingredient, especially in brands like Doritos and FritoLay.
Orange Juice
This may be a shocker to anyone on a vegan diet. Some orange juice brands usually enhance their OJ with omega 3, which they derive from fish. You can actually get omega 3s from plant-based ingredients. When you freshly make your juices, though, you’ll never have to worry.
White Sugar
First off, stevia and agave syrup are way healthier options than regular sugar. Refined sugar is not naturally white; rather, bone char, which is often labeled as “natural carbon,” is used to give sugar the white color.
Honey
Veganism means that you don’t consume anything that is a product of the animal kingdom. Since honey is a product of bees, it is technically not vegan, although some choose to overlook that.
Breath Mints
Altoid uses gelatin in the production of its mints. Ingredients may not be the first things you look at when you buy breath mints, but companies can use animal products in many things. Altoid does make a vegan-friendly breath mint called “sugar-free smalls.” It probably isn’t the only brand that uses gelatin, so be on the lookout.
Pad Thai
If you order Pad Thai at a restaurant, it is probably made with fish sauce because that is a classic ingredient in the dish. If you make Pad Thai at home, you can easily omit the fish sauce without compromising the flavor.
That’s a pretty surprising list, right? In addition to the above foods, marshmallows, Jello (obviously), some bagels and bread, dark beer, Caesar dressing, and French onion soup all have animal products in them. Make sure you double check for animal products when you’re buying food.
Vincent Stevens is the senior content writer at Dherbs. As a fitness and health and wellness enthusiast, he enjoys covering a variety of topics, including the latest health, fitness, beauty, and lifestyle trends. His goal is to inform people of different ways they can improve their overall health, which aligns with Dherbs’ core values. He received his bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Redlands, graduating summa cum laude. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
