Hidden Ingredients

(CC) Image by Keven Law

Unfortunately we live in a world where powerful companies are allowed to use deceptive tactics to fool consumers into buying a product. In many cases food companies label ingredients with a variety of long and complicated names, instead of simply revealing the actual ingredients. One of the reasons they create these names is to disguise the shocking ingredients their foods contain. If the consumer knew what was in the food product they may think twice about buying it. Little do consumers know they may be consuming animal derivatives, animal collagen, animal tissue and animal hair.

Gelatin(e)

Many products (particularly in the U.S.A) contain the gelling agent known as gelatin(e). This gelling agent is produced from boiled animal bones and the collagen/tissue in cattle and sheep legs/hooves. Gelatin(e) can be found in a wide variety of foods including cereals, biscuits, yoghurts, peanuts, candy and sweets. It can also be found in health supplements and cosmetics. Many vegetarians and vegans may presume certain products do not contain any animal ingredients, when in fact they do. It is very important for vegetarians and vegans to read all ingredients when purchasing foods and cosmetics as it is very easy to assume something will be animal free. For instance, Planters dry roasted peanuts contain gelatin(e), though one might initially presume nuts would never contain such an ingredient.

Companies Using Gelatin

Yoplait
Planters
Kellogg's
Haribo
Danone
General Mill's
Jell-O
Kraft Food's
Dr Oetker
Rowntree's
Malt-O-Meal

E Numbers

We have all heard of E numbers and we have all, one time or another, consumed a food or drink containing these food additives. Most people are also aware of the unhealthy nature of these ingredients as they produce unwanted side effects including increased hyperactivity in children. What many people are unaware of is that many of these E numbers can be derived from cows, sheep and pigs.

The list below shows the E numbers that are possibly animal derived. However, these E numbers could also be extracted from vegetables. It may be easier for vegetarians and vegans to simply avoid all E-numbers so as to avoid consuming a product that may contain animal derivatives.

•E120 •E140 •E141•E422 •E430 •E431•E433 •E470 •E471•E472a •E472b •E472c •E472d •E472e •E473 •E474 •E475 •E476 •E477 •E478 •E491 •E492 •E494 •E542 •E570 •E572

(CC) Image by Aurelie et Herve

(CC) Image by Pablo Dodda

Hidden Animal Ingredients

The list below is not a comprehensive list of all animal derived ingredients as the list would be nearly endless. Instead we have compiled a list of hidden ingredients that are most commonly found in cosmetics and foods. The list only contains ingredients derived from animal flesh and bone, it does not include hidden ingredients that derive from dairy.

Adrenaline- hormone extracted from pigs, cows and sheep

Allantoin- uric acid from cows, found in cosmetics

Amino acids - proteins may be animal or plant derived

Ambergris- from whale intestine, can be found in perfumes

Anchovy- small fish, used on pizza's

Arachidonic Acid- found in the livers and brains of animals

Aspic- a jelly made from gelatin(e)

Bone, Bone charcoal, Bonemeal- derived from boiled animal bone

Bristles- derived from animal hair normally pigs, sometimes used in toothbrushes

Caviar(e)- fish eggs, may also come from belluga's and other marine mammals

Cochineal/carmine/carminic acid- made from the red pigmentation of the cochineal insect (approximately 70,000 insects used to produce one pound of red pigment)

Cetyl Alcohol- derived from spermacetti in whales

Chitin- found in outer shells of insects and crustaceans

Collagen- derived from animal tissue

Elastin- found in the muscle fibres of animal.

Fatty acid derivatives- used in cosmetics

Gelatin(e)- derived from boiled animal bones and cow/sheep collagen

Glycerol- normally animal derived found in soaps and cosmetics

Isinglass- a type of gelatin(e) derived from fish

Keratin- formed from ground animal hooves and hair, found in shampoo and conditioner

Lactic Acid- found in animal tissue, used as a preservative

Lecithin- fatty acid found in blood and animal tissue.

Lipoids- found in animals as well as plants.