Even if you are a savvy shopper, there are just some foods you don’t think you need to do extra research on—uncomplicated foods such as sugar and bananas. But especially if you are vegetarian or vegan, animal products turn up in the darndest places. It’s a sneaky business.
I talked to Emily Schwartz, co-owner of Karma Cream, an organic ice cream café specializing in vegan baked goods in Gainesville, Florida. “I was raised vegetarian,” Schwartz says. “But when I got older, I had a general interest in my food and where it came from. Slowly it became apparent that animal products go into the strangest things.”
Marshmallows, she discovered had gelatin. Cheese had rennet. But what really blew her mind were the foods she least suspected, foods that often have no labels and don’t fully disclose where they source their ingredients. Here is a list of the foods that may seem vegetarian/vegan—seem being the operative word.
White sugar
Refined sugar comes from primarily two sources: sugar cane and sugar beets. To make it look super white, the sugar industry tends to use bone char as a decolorizing filter. The bone char, also referred to as natural carbon, is made from the bones of cattle from countries like Afghanistan, Argentina, India and Pakistan, who sell them to the U.S. sugar industry— the FDA prohibits the use of bones from the United States’ meat industry. Confectioner’s sugar and brown sugar, which are variations of white sugar, can also be offenders.
Stick to: Beet sugar or organic sugar are all good bets. You can also check out this list of companies that do not use bone-char filters.
Vanilla Ice Cream
Often disguised under the “natural flavors” loophole, vanilla ice cream can contain castoreum, the technical name for the goo that is squeezed out of a beaver’s anal glands. It has a musky smell similar to vanilla, but can also be used to simulate artificial raspberry and strawberry flavoring. Because the FDA has ruled castoreum as Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS), food manufacturers are not required to list it in the ingredients.
Stick to: Vegan ice creams, or ice cream that contains real flavors as opposed to natural flavoring.
Bread products
Many bread products, including the beloved bagel, use dough conditioners to enhance the texture and appearance of bread. Many mass-produced bread products contain DATEM, an acronym of Diacetyl Tartrate Ester of Monoglyceride, a blend of several different emulsifying agents, many of which may be animal-derived. You can’t rely on the list of ingredients to disclose from where the DATEM has been sourced. Also be on the look out for another dough conditioner called L-cysteine, derived from duck and chicken feathers. Einstein Bros. Bagels previously used animal-derived L-cysteine, but in 2012 switched over to a synthetic form of L-cysteine that does not contain duck feathers.
Stick to: Vegan breads, or eat local breads and bagels.
Bananas
The good news is scientists have figured out a way to slow down how fast bananas rot, but the bad news is the means—a hydrogel coating made from crustacean shells such as crabs and shrimp that can infiltrate the fruit.
Stick to: Currently, the chitosan-based spray is not available commercially, so bananas are still vegan. But stay tuned. And organic is always a safe bet.
In an age when we don’t truly know how our food is being sourced, making things from scratch becomes a smarter—and safer—alternative to store bought. Try Schwartz’s recipe, below, for a vegan delight that contains no errant animal by-products.
![Earl Gray Lavender Shortbread]( "Lavender Shortbread Cookies")
Lavender Earl Grey Shortbread
Makes 20 cookies
Ingredients
4 cups organic unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups organic vegan powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. organic loose leaf earl grey tea
1/2 Tbsp. organic lavender flowers
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup organic canola oil
1 cup vegan organic whipped buttery spread
4 tsp. organic lemon juice
1 tsp. organic vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. water
Vanilla Glaze (optional)
1 cup organic vegan powdered sugar
4 tsp. organic vegan milk of your choice (such as soy, almond or coconut)
⅛ tsp. organic vanilla extract
Organic lavender flowers
Directions
- Place 1/2 tablespoon of lavender and 1 tablespoon of earl grey tea in coffee grinder and grind until fine. Add the remaining tablespoon earl grey tea and pulse once or twice so that large pieces still remain.
- Next, sift powdered sugar in extra-large mixing bowl, add ground tea and remaining dry ingredients. Mix ingredients together until well combined.
- Add softened whipped buttery spread and all other wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Using your hands, knead all ingredients together until just combined. The dough will be dense and somewhat dry.
- Divide dough into two and shape into rectangular blocks. Cover and refrigerate until cool.
- Cut cookies from blocks and shape dough into rectangles onto baking sheet and bake at 325° F for 12 minutes.
- For glaze, combine sifted powdered sugar with vegan milk and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth. Once the shortbread cookies have cooled, apply glaze to each cookie using a small spoon and sprinkle with lavender flowers.