Which Ingredients are Acceptable to Vegans?
| Online | ||||
| If a product is labeled vegan, it should not contain: | Ethical Vegan n=74 | Health Vegan n=28 | Not Vegan n=38 | Ethical Vegan n=30 |
| Sugar | 14% | 21% | 16% | 33% |
| Beet Sugar | 9% | 18% | -- | 3% |
| Cane Sugar | 11% | 18% | 11% | 10% |
| Vitamin D | 11% | 14% | 8% | 10% |
| Vitamin D2 | 7% | 10% | 8% | 7% |
| Vitamin D3 | 38% | 25% | 13% | 57% |
| Vitamin B12 | 8% | 7% | -- | 3% |
| Cysteine | 38% | 29% | 37% | 63% |
| Wheat | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Onions | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Products made on the same equipment as non-vegan products | 31% | 57% | 61% | 37% |
| Synthetic Ingredients | 16% | 36% | 19% | 27% |
| Products that had ingredients made from feathers | 74% | 89% | 97% | 100% |
| Products that had ingredients made from human hair | 62% | 86% | 82% | 77% |
| Products whitened by filtering through bone char, though bone char is not in the food | 88% | 82% | 89% | 90% |
| Soy yogurt cultures containing microorganisms produced over 20 years ago from microorganisms present in a dairy yogurt culture | 32% | 43% | 29% | 50% |
| Ingredients that originally started from lanolin (a substance extracted from wool) | 93% | 68% | 74% | 90% |
| Fruit covered with wax from an insect secretion | 77% | 75% | 89% | 83% |
| Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) | 46% | 68% | 50% | 57% |
It's not just about meat: Numerous companies developing products for vegans have asked us which ingredients are acceptable to vegans. To help determine the answer to this question, The Vegetarian Resource Group commissioned a national Harris poll. The results are at http://www.vrg.org/nutshell/faq.htm#poll. In 2012, we also conducted a more informal online poll, plus a mail-in poll with a sampling of Vegetarian Journal readers. The products most strongly rejected by all segments of respondents are products made from feathers, products made from human hair, products whitened by filtering through bone char though bone char is not actually in the food, ingredients that originally started from lanolin, and fruit covered with a wax from an insect secretion.
How do self-described ethical and health vegans feel about...
Honey: Eighty percent of online responders and 87% of mail-in responders who consider themselves ethical vegans do not use honey. Out of the online responders who consider themselves health vegans, 46% of them do not use honey.
Leather: Eighty-six percent of online responders and 66% of mail-in responders who consider themselves ethical vegans do not use leather. Out of the online responders who consider themselves health vegans, 53% do not use leather.
Wool: Eighty-one percent of online responders and 80% of mail-in responders who consider themselves ethical vegans do not use wool. Out of the online responders who consider themselves health vegans, 39% of them do not use wool.
