First and foremost, let me say I'm not a vegan. I've gone a couple of days without consuming animal products, but I can assure you it wasn't done on purpose.
One of my friends, however, is a strict vegan. She examines every food item that she comes across to make sure that it does not contain animal products. Some foods like meat and dairy items are quite obviously not vegan—but there are other foods that I assumed were vegan, but turned out not to be.
Here are 10 foods that surprisingly contain animal products.
1. Yogurt
You probably thought your yogurt's redness came from the strawberries. Nope. It comes from insects. Cochineals are insects that are grounded to make a red dye.
2. Vanilla Ice Cream
Your ice cream may have the words "vegan" on it, but is it really vegan? Part of the flavor and smell that you identify as vanilla in ice cream comes from the sacs of beavers. Beavers secrete a substance called castoreum that smells like vanilla. Because of this smell, it is used as part of a vanilla substitute
3. Candy
Some candies like Gummi bears, Starburst and candy corn contain gelatin. Gelatin is obtained from the bones and skin of animals. Also, if the candy is red, it might contain red dye from the Cochineal insects.
4. Potato Chips
For chips, it really depends on the flavor, Some contain animal products such as whey, cheese or skim milk. One ingredient that is surprising is chicken. Yep, you read that right. Chicken is commonly found in some BBQ-flavored chips.
5. Orange Juice
The culprit here is the added omega-3s. The omega 3s come from fish oil and fish gelatin. I guess you can always rely on a vegan smoothie to start your mornings right.
6. Salad Dressing
Salad dressing? Duh. Some salad dressings contain eggs and dairy products. But, the salad dressings you have to watch out for are the ones with fish in them. The fish labeling may be concealed in the Worcestershire sauce labeling.
7. Peanuts
Nope, peanuts are not safe either. The animal product they contain is gelatin. Gelatin is used in some peanuts in order to make the salt stick to the peanuts.
8. Bread
Some breads, like sourdough, are made with milk products such as evaporated milk. Luckily, it doesn't take long to make your own bread.
9. Pastries
Some pastries are made with suet. Suet is the fatty tissue on the kidneys and loins of animals like cows and sheep. Gross.
10. Beer
Beer can have ingredients like gelatin, lactose and red dye from the Cochineal insects, and the milk protein, casein
This list is, in my opinion, a reason not to go vegan. But for my vegan friends who plan to stick it out with the no animal diet, always look at the ingredients label on food and watch out for ingredients that contain animal products.