By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS

In October 2018, The VRG received an email from a reader who learned of a product that says it is not vegan due to the xanthan gum.

“I was reading your article about xanthan gum’s veganness and I recently learned of a product that says it is not vegan due to the xanthan gum.”

Secret Aardvark’s https://secretaardvark.com/ FAQ page said:

“All but the Drunken Garlic Black Bean are vegan as well. The one concern is the xanthan in the Drunken Garlic Black Bean. Xanthan can be produced via corn or lactose. We use the lactose produced xanthan as it is the most consistent.”

The VRG checked Secret Aardvark’s website to confirm what our reader had quoted and saw that it was the case. We then contacted the company to find out if its xanthan gum is derived from cow’s milk lactose. TheVRG received this email in November 2018 from self described “Habanero Wrangler” Katie Osborne of Secret Aardvark:

“We’ve recently switched our xanthan gum and it is glucose-based derived from non-GMO corn. We used a lactose-based xanthan for years because the non-GMO corn wasn’t always easy to find but as the market for cleaner label ingredients expand these things become more readily available.”

Secret Aardvark recently updated their website in November 2018 to reflect this change. From their FAQ page https://secretaardvark.com/contact/faqs/

Q: Are your products vegetarian?

A: Yes they are all vegetarian. All but the Spicy Mayo Habanero Hot Sauce are vegan as well. We use xanthan gum that is glucose-based that is derived from non-GMO corn.

[VRG Note: The Spicy Mayo Habenero Sauce contains mayonnaise.]

The VRG is trying to track down the mentioned lactose-derived xanthan gum and source to see if actually dairy derived, and if so, more information. So far, it has appeared that commercially available xanthan gum today is vegan.

The contents of this posting, our website, and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.