Meat Found in Veg Products

In Taipei, Taiwan, vegetarian consumers are proceeding with caution. In a recent study, health officials found six of 35 vegetarian products to contain beef, pork, and chicken—a shock to the approximate 2 million vegetarians living in the Taiwanese capital. The non-veggie foods—vegetarian-pork meatballs and vegetarian fish balls, specifically—lacked proper labeling, prompting Chiang Yu-mei, Taipei’s director of the Food and Drug Division, to implement a new certification system to protect veg-friendly consumers. The guidelines go into effect on July 1, 2009 and require all vegetarian-product manufacturers and stores to clearly label items with one of five categories: purely vegetarian, vegetarian with eggs, vegetarian with dairy products, vegetarian with eggs and dairy products, or vegetarian without animal content.