To avoid consuming animal products, many people simply look at the ingredients to determine whether certain foods meet their dietary restrictions or not. But I’ve come to the realization that many things are not as apparent as they seem, and it’s not as easy as just reading a food label. Although any step toward veganism is a positive one, there are still a lot of ways in which many vegans may still be ‘supporting’ animal agriculture without even knowing it. It’s important to become informed in order to make these conscious decisions for yourself.
While most alcohol is vegan, there are still quite a number of beers, liquors, and wines that do not fall under the vegan category. It turns out that animal-derived ingredients may be used in the production of these alcoholic beverages. These ingredients include gelatin, egg whites, fish bladder, and casein (just to name a few). Unfortunately, nutritional labeling is not a requirement for alcoholic beverages so there’s no way of knowing what’s vegan or not simply by just looking at the bottle. So, you have to do a little bit of research before your next alcohol purchase.
I discovered a really great site that every vegan/vegetarian needs to check out. It’s called Barnivore. It is a database of about 22,000 products, in which you can search whether an alcohol product is vegan or not. They’ve done all the hard work by researching and organizing this together for the vegan community, which is pretty awesome. So even if you’re not ready to give up your favorite alcoholic beverages, at least now you are informed!
July 10, 2015 at 9:38 am
I’ve just drank of bottle of Bavarian Hefe-Weissbier, unfiltered, unpasteurised and very nice it was too.
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July 10, 2015 at 12:48 pm
Nice!
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July 10, 2015 at 10:17 am
very informative! I had heard of some of this! but thank you so much for sharing… I am sharing on twitter :)
I have a vegan blog with some recipes, product reviews & environmental health posts!
http://www.veganneeds.com
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July 10, 2015 at 12:48 pm
Thanks, glad you found it helpful!
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July 10, 2015 at 11:39 am
Will definitely be using that site! Thanks for the reference!
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July 10, 2015 at 3:02 pm
Omg I’ve been wondering about this for forever! Thanks!!
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July 10, 2015 at 5:34 pm
Love your blog! I nominated you for The Starlight Blogger Award! Check it out
http://veganneeds.com/2015/07/10/starlight-blogger-award/
keep up the great work :)
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July 10, 2015 at 6:34 pm
Aw, thank you!
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July 27, 2015 at 7:27 pm
Loving your blog so I have nominated you for the LIEBSTER Award! Check it out http://newveginnings.com/2015/07/28/new-veginnings-nominated-for-the-liebster-award/
Keep on blogging! :)
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March 15, 2016 at 6:24 am
This is so helpful! I never know how to tell what is and isn’t vegan when it comes to alcohol, but I want to be a more informed consumer!
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