I started reading labels and I'm shocked!!!
 

Ok may foods I bought I thought where meatless then I started reading the labels. It started on thanksgiving I bought my family chicken stuffing and bought cornbread stuffing for myself. I was curious so I read the ingredients and corn bread stuffing is made with chicken broth!! So I started reading labels of other foods I eat and found more. French onion soup has beef, potato soup has chicken, ect. I used to buy sloppy joe mix before you add hamburger and use boca crumbles. I read the label and it says may contain anchovies!!!!!!!!!! Yuk!! I used to eat jello untill I found out what gelatin was double yuk!!!!! How could I be so blind. Was I the only one that didn't know this? I will be reading every label from now on.
Kelly

It really is amazing how many food items have animal by-products in them. There are some pretty nasty ingredients added to the foods we eat, and it get especially tricky with all the chemically-sounding names that one would never guess are animal-based products.

One easy way to find out if a product is animal-free is to look for various kosher symbols. If a product is kosher dairy or kosher pareve, then it will be free from meat (as dairy and meat can not be eaten together by those who keep kosher while pareve is considered neutral and can be eaten with both [which means it's dairy and meat-free]).

Even Campbell's vegetable soup :( It's everywhere! Gelatin in yogurt (kosher gelatin is still no good), rennet in cheeses, fish sauce in a ton of asian foods. So frustrating!

_Even vitamins and supliments are lousy with animal products and gelatin coating. Ick!

It's pretty bad out there! I cook more from scratch now than ever.

I was thinking about this too since I'm thinking of going pescetarian...all these hidden stuff in these food that seem animal free. Used to love jelly but found out they made it from the froth from boiling animal bones and red food colouring is actually made from grounded up insects or something like that.

dude "Despite the popular misconception, Allura Red AC is not derived from any insect, unlike the food colouring carmine, which is derived from the female cochineal insect." Wikipedia. very gross.

"Carmine is used in the manufacture of artificial flowers, paints, crimson ink, rouge, and other cosmetics, and is routinely added to food products such as yogurt and certain brands of juice, the most notable ones being those of the ruby-red variety."

the non bug food coloring is made from petroleum apparently and thats actually more gross than eating bugs.

I recently learned about castoreum. It's a food additive made from the anal secretions and urine of beavers.

What productsis castoreum in?! That sounds gross!

It's used in artificial raspberry, strawberry, and vanilla flavored foods and drinks. Unfortunately it is listed as a natural flavor so it's hard to tell what foods it is actually in.

haha! you are not alone! when I 1st became a veggie i fell into all those traps :)
I have learnt now what I can and cannot safely eat, for example I cannot have some pills as they have animal by products (even some iron capsules......) yuk!
Its all about research and reading lables :)

Yes it is scary when you start to read labels. I am always amazed by what we put into food and think it is good for us, and we have been doing it for years.

Oh yeah that I understand, when I started to read about closer alot of my old "food" went back on the shelf.

When I first went veggie I used to eat this "fresh" microwave meal (like not the freezer kind) that I loved - spinach and mushroom tortellini. I pretty much ate it every day for lunch for a couple of months until I read the ingredients - it had chicken fat in it! Who would have thought...

It's very difficult without doubt. I'm a vegan mostly because I'm lactose intolerant. Do you have any idea how many foods involve milk products?! Oh my goodness even some breads have milk. And then there's whey which I never knew was dangerous. It's a never ending cycle of fear. However, I've never heard of these other things you guys are mentioning. Disgusting!

I've noticed this too. I will be switching from paleo to clean/vegan/gluten free and it's really hard to do when you start reading labels.

Yes, I completely understand! Even though I am not vegetarian, I have some dietary restrictions due to religious observance but also for other health reasons. Trying to find foods that not only contain no animal byproducts but no alcohol as well is a pretty tough task. Like many others here, I started making mostly everything by scratch. But yes, you would be surprised how many things have some sort of animal derived ingredients!

I get it and yes its pretty rough, I had moments like this and still do which is why I switched to making things at home as much as possible rennet in cheeses is pretty rough I just just noticed it so now I may be able to cure my cheese obsession...hopefully.

I say stick to health food stores as much as possible and little by little make meals for yourself out of beans and veggies (sadly bean cans have to be checked too.)

Stuff I always check
 

Refried Beans sometimes contain lard. Read the label!

Also, I never get soup out anywhere without asking if it's made with meat stock. Most are. And I don't always believe them when they tell me it's not.

The Weight Watchers frozen foods almost all contain chicken fat or broth. People think I'm crazy when I start yelling in the frozen food aisle, "Why do you have to ruin a perfectly good vegetarian entree with meat products!"

Very frustrating. Making your own food is always safest.

after 13 years of being vegetarian it's second nature to read the labels of everything I buy. Also to question when I go out to eat to see if something really is meat free. It is very frustrating and after reading about the insects....time to learn how to cook for me lol

The FDA are ****ing sneaky man, I think there's a reason why the whole foods movement has grown in popularity. I can't believe but Jif is apparently not vegetarian, and I still can't figure out why because thos big long words have so many hidden meanings.

The other day I went to the store and saw Split pea and ham soup. I thought oh crap, that's something I will miss now being vegetarian. But then, right next to it, Split Pea Soup! It looked exactly the same as the split pea and ham, but was obviously a vegetarian version. I was thrilled. After finishing a bowl off, I thought Hmm I wonder what's in here that makes it so good! And there it was. Lard. Pig fat. 3 ingredients: Peas, Spices, Pig fat. Great.

I have had bad experiences with soups as well.
Once a co-worker dragged me to a restaurant for a lunch. In the restaurant I was told that their veggie soup is of course vegetarian, but when I tasted it, it was a chicken broth masked with veggies.
I have also been served a vegetarian pea soup that smelled to the high heaven of smoked pork.
So I prefer to cook my own lunch and bring it along.
Jelly lovers, have you tried agar-agar as a gelatin substitution? It's made of algae.

Katz - I've bought "jello" from the asian market that was made with agar-agar and it was good. agar-agar is really versatile.

They put the weirdest stuff in our foods disguised under unpronounceable chemical names.
I was horrified when I first found out too. The food industry pays the government and advertisers a ton of money to keep people blind and dumb.

I don't trust anything in a box, can, or jar till I've done my research.

French onion soup is pretty much heavily onioned beef stock with melted cheese on top.

Lots of sauces use anchovies. Worcestershire for example. Also some types of "A1" type sauces or BBQs.

I am always surprised by people who don't know how gelatin is made. I shouldn't be though, because apparently it isn't as common knowledge as I had assumed it was.

Label reading will bring about some interesting revelations for sure.

The most surprising one I heard is that many packaged orange juices are not vegan. Here's one small list that includes juice: http://www.blisstree.com/2010/09/15/...ontained-meat/

I'm not vegan or veggie, but I still raised an eyebrow at that one.

This is a bugbear of mine and I notice it a lot with sweets, gelatine is in so much now which means they are out of bounds - probably not a bad thing though :D I wish food companies would be more transparent with their labels so we could tell which are veggie friendly.

I'm never surprised any more. Lots of people don't know simple things about our food supply -- for example: milk. I spoke with several attorneys who thought cows just 'have milk in them at all times', and that we do them a favor by milking them. They didn't connect cow milk with BABY cows AT ALL. Like totally blank looks when I mention the baby cows as part of the process.

As a society, many of us are very, very disconnected from our food sources. And many people actively court ignorance, as well, because they don't want to KNOW the truth.

This is so true. That's amazing about the attorneys, but I'm sure it's all too common.

Mexican Restaurants
 

I never knew that Mexican restaurants put chicken broth in the red sauce until a few years ago. It didn't occur to me because there's not chicken broth in the enchilada sauce they sell in the grocery stores.

Some of them do, I know Trader Joe's has it in theirs. But chicken broth is often in the rice and lard is often in the beans at Mexican restaurants. You definitely have to ask.