Become a Vegan Grocery Pro in 4 Steps

Book-learning and how-to guides give vegans the grocery-shopping edge.


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Conscientious consumers tend to block grocery store aisles as they scour ingredients lists in search of additives that scream animal cruelty; and while studying the back of the box, they inevitably cause a log jam of scowling shoppers. Not cool. To speed up the scan of bottles, jars, boxes, and cans, come armed with memorized facts and a handy compendium containing the what and what-not of prepackaged foods.

Get Smart
Smooth-talking marketers have changed the foodie lexicon to misdirect consumers. We see whey, not cows’ milk; lanolin, not sheep’s wool; and pepsin, not pigs’ stomachs. With thousands of misguiding ingredient names, it’s tricky to steer clear of products that profit off animal suffering. To bypass the marketing circumlocution, it’s important to do a little homework.

Learning the Basics
Vegan Shopping 101 schools farm-animal lovers about the usual, sneaky suspects. Take Auntie Glenda’s lovingly crafted JELL-O mold: the gelatin she’s serving is a protein created from boiled cow and pig bones, ligaments, tendons, and skins. (Sorry, Auntie Glenda, I’ll just stick with your soggy, boiled asparagus.)

What about the slice of “vegetarian” cheese slapped on the hungry herbivore’s midday sandwich? If the cheese package says rennet or rennin, you’ve been duped into noshing on the fourth stomach of a slaughtered calf, which has been scraped away from surface fat, stretched over drying racks, ground, and mixed with a salt solution. Hold the dubious cheese, please! Some mornings wouldn’t be complete without a toasted English muffin slathered with “vegetarian” cream cheese, but double-check that these don’t contain casein, a dairy-derived protein often found in these breakfast staples.

Common culprits like whey, lanolin, and gelatin are easy to memorize and avoid-like plagues and crazy landlords.

The Hungry Vegan
All the hungry vegan grocery shopper needs is a tote bag, pleather wallet, and reference list of the pernicious good, bad, and ugly. Agar-agar, caramel color, gluten, guar gum, lactic acid, and lecithin rank high on the veg-friendly scale. Some of the scalawags include albumen, casein, gelatin, isinglass, lactose, lanolin, pepsin, rennet or rennin, tallow, and whey. More comprehensive lists exist in An A-Z Guide to Food Additives, A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives, and Eating Between the Lines.

When in Doubt
The simplest way to eliminate nasty additives is to shop sans-packaging! Reducing the purchase of plastic-wrapped goods weakens the market for pre-packaged, manufactured foods. Fresh, whole fruits and vegetables put pep in your step and curb environmentally damaging waste. When in doubt, hone-in on foods with pronounceable ingredients. And next time a trip to Auntie Glenda’s house rolls around, consider bringing some fresh asparagus to bake or steam for the family meal.