Animal-derived ingredient

An animal-derived ingredient is any input obtained wholly or partly from an animal — meat, dairy, egg, honey, and by-products such as gelatin, carmine or shellac, including ingredients from insects. Many hide under technical names or arrive as processing aids, so they are not obvious on a label. Identifying them is the core of a vegan or vegetarian review, which traces each ingredient to its source.

In depth

Some animal-derived ingredients are obvious, but many are not. Gelatin comes from animal collagen, carmine from insects, shellac from a lac insect, rennet traditionally from calf stomach, and isinglass from fish. Others, like glycerin or mono- and diglycerides, can be either plant or animal in origin.

A vegan claim excludes all animal-derived ingredients; a vegetarian claim excludes meat, poultry and fish but may allow dairy and egg — see lacto-ovo vegetarian. In both cases the difficulty is the same: proving what an ingredient actually is.

Because origin often is not stated on a spec sheet, a review relies on a supplier declaration naming the source of each ambiguous ingredient and any processing aids used to make it. The V-Cert ingredient library documents the common ones.

Related marks

• VeganFood, beverage, supplements, cosmetics.
• VegetarianA first-class mark — never vegan's footnote.

Related terms

• Fining agent — A fining agent is a substance added during processing to remove haze and sediment from a liquid such as wine, beer, cider or juice.
• Processing aid — A processing aid is a substance used during manufacturing to achieve a technical effect but not intended to remain, as a functional ingredient, in the finished food.
• Supplier declaration — A supplier declaration is a written statement from a supplier confirming facts about an ingredient, such as its source, composition or processing.

Frequently asked questions