Common Foods that Are Not Vegetarian
Vegetarians Should Beware of These Foods that They Might Think Are Vegetarian Friendly
Cheese:
I ate cheese for many years, always assuming that cheese was made from milk and that no cows were harmed during the making of cheese. Although I won't discuss the cruelty that occurs on some dairy farms in this article, I will explain the problem with making cheese. Cheese obviously comes from milk, but in the making, most cheeses use a substance called rennet that coagulates milk and eventually forms cheese. Rennet comes from the stomach of a calf and is extracted during the veal making process. There are brands of cheeses that don't use animal rennet in their cheese making process. Boars Head is one company, but call their main office because they have a few cheeses that are made from rennet. Cabot is another company. You can check on the back of their labels and it should say vegetable rennet in the ingredients. Also, many soft cheeses such as cream cheese do not use rennet and many brands of cottage cheese are rennet free.
Gelatin:
If you think that Jello is a vegetarian treat, you are wrong. Jello contains gelatin, which is made from the boiled bones, skins, and tendons of animals. There are a lot of other products that contain gelatin, so check the labels just to be sure. If a label says, kosher gelatin, don't get excited. Most kosher gelatins are not vegetarian friendly either.
Sour Cream:
Some brands of sour cream contain gelatin. Make sure that you look at the label before you buy in order to determine if the sour cream you are eating lists gelatin as an ingredient.
Soup:
A lot of soups are vegetarian and some are obviously not like chicken noodle. But check the label on your next can of soup because some flavors and brands of soup contain chicken or beef stock. One culprit is Cream of Celery soup. I was surprised to see chicken stock listed as an ingredient.
Stuffing:
I never realized until after a few Thanksgivings had passed that many prepackaged stuffing mixes contain chicken stock. Now I make my own from scratch with vegetable broth and bread crumbs.
Twinkies and Cupcakes:
Some brands of baked goods contain animal shortening whick is made from the fat of animals. Twinkies and Hostess Cupcakes both contain animal shortening, as do many other prepackaged cookies and cakes.
A good rule of thumb is to always read the ingredients before you buy. In the beginning, I spent a lot of time pouring over the labels in the store, but it gets easier once you are familiar with what ingredients are in your favorite foods.
Published by Dana Barnett
Dana is currently attending graduate school but enjoys writing in her very limited spare time. She also has two dogs who are the loves of her life. View profile
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12 Comments
Post a CommentI agree. This article clearly discusses foods that aren't vegetarian. It's pretty obvious that cheese, sour cream, and snack cakes that incorporate dairy and eggs are not vegan.
I'm a vegetarian and just try to keep an eye on food labels. Some ingredients can be misleading, but we must do what we can! Occasionally it's simply out of curiosity. I've never eaten a Twinkie in my life and never wanted to but read the ingredients list just to know what was in one, and was pretty grossed out. Even people who aren't vegetarians or vegans should make it a habit to read their food labels for calorie and ingredient lists. It's empowering, says I.
I don't think that it's misleading. I don't know any vegetarian that would consume soup containing chicken or beef stock. That's not just a vegan preference.
Your title is misleading because you don't take into account the different categories of vegetarians. A VEGAN is a person who doesn't eat any animal products, not a vegetarian. There are lacto vegetarians (people who eat dairy products), ovo vegetarians (people who eat eggs) and lacto-ovo vegetarians (people who eat both dairy and egg products). Your title should've been "Common Foods That Are Not Vegan."
...I will never get the image of rows and rows for miles of "veal houses" out of my head and the thoughts of what is inside... And slaughter houses are unimagionable to me...I do hope there is a worldwide shift to peace and harmony and love towards our fellow inhabitants very soon... take care...A~
Hello...I stopped eating beef about 25 yrs.ago and chicken,fish,shellfish and wearing leather about 6 yrs.ago.....I just learned about rennet a few days ago...I am sick about the fact that I have unknowingly been contributing to the cruelty of calves all this time...I wish I had looked into the hidden aspects of vegetarianism earlier...I hope articles and blogs like this will help to inform people...I wish all the cruelty of the creatures we share the planet with would stop.We do not have to slaughter to survive.There was a time when no one thought whale hunting would stop,or seal clubbing or porpoises would stop being caught in tuna nets(as if they are different in the scheme of things..)or hunting animals to extinction.But these things have all come to an end(mostly) as humans progress towards a more "humane" consciousness. I would love to see a stop put to boiling lobsters and crabs alive...I do eat eggs,but only from cage-free,organically fed chickens,I gladly pay the extra price
Yeah im vegetarian and when i look back and ive made the mistake of eating these it makes me so sick and feel like less of a vegetarian!! plz tell me mistakes hav happened to other vegetarians!!
see, I don't care about any of this. I'm a vegetarian because I don't like the taste of meat. I don't care about rennet or gelatin, because frankly, I'm not going to make myself sick or spend hundreds more just to get myself fed.
Great article, thanks for the info!
wow thanks, i just went vegetarian and i started finding out about things like porcine enzymes and rennet that i didnt realize came into play. theres def a lot more to being a vegetarian than avoiding meat.
I love this article. I used to enjoy Jello until I found out what was in it. Yuck!