lets make a DONT EAT THIS list

has anyone else ever found out they have been "tricked" for quite some time by a seemingly "safe" food, and then later discovered it has non-vegetarian ingredients?

i felt so sick the day i caught out of the corner of my eye "anchovy" on a packet of:

caesar salad dressing

can anyone add more items to make a list of things to watch out for?

I used to always order Penne Putanesca at one of my fav. places.  I never knew anvhovies were in it since it wasn't in the description.  Dumb?   I don't know...

Be careful at Thai or other Asian restaurants that have a supposedly "vegetarian" section of their menu. Usually there is fish sauce or oyster sauce, especially in the curries, so check first! Sometimes thousand island dressing has bacon in it (I think that Newman's does..) Some of Annie's dressings, like the caesar one, which we would normally assume to be vegetarian since they are from the health food store have anchovies! And also.. some restaurants put lard in their beans, so watch out for that too.

Beware of anything that uses isinglass in processing food or drink!

Isinglass is fish bladder and is used mostly for clearing up wine and beer of yeast and sulfites...even WHEY PROTEIN!! So be careful!

There are many websites outlining what beers and wines are non-veg, non-vegan...Guinness or any other "cask" beer uses isinglass and like I mentioned before, even some whey proteins....SCARY!!!

Kosher gelatin is USUALLY made from seaweed (agar-agar).  I emphasize usually.  So some of it should be veg-safe - I wouldn't know how to tell other than contacting food manufacturers, though. 

I didn't use to know about fish sauce in thai and other asian cuisine either.  I order my pad thai without fish sauce in it :)

lots of prepackaged noodles and ramen have powdered chicken or beef broth in them. 

also wanted to add that some dyes are animal-based - the coloring in grenadine syrup is made from cochineal, which are ground-up insects.  grenadine is used in many cocktails.

When my daughter was vegetarian the only soup she could have was progresso's Broccoli and cheese soup - she wasn't vegan so she would do cheese and dairy  But even the so called "vegetarian vegetable soup" by Campbell's has egg whites in it

Beware of the new Hostess 100 calorie packs. They have beef fat and/or animal shortening

But even the so called "vegetarian vegetable soup" by Campbell's has egg whites in it.

You're kidding me.  I didn't notice them when I scanned the label.  This is my lunch for today, guess I get to go home at lunch and fish the can out of the trash to re-read.

I had heard that anchovies is not only a fish but also a spice/seosoning. I'm not sure how true that is- just thought I would throw that out there. I tried doing a google search but couldn't find anything.

I know that oreo's are VEGAN safe, which rocks.

You know its disgusting how many different foods use unnecessary animal parts. I even had nightmares about doghnuts that were stuffed with fried chicken & turkey- it was horrible.

I really will convert back to veganism as soon as I think the time is right. I'm doing it much slower this time as last time I did get really sick, and not just for a week but the whole time which was over 3 months.

So anyways- UCK. after reading the info on this thread I want to punch myself in the face. I LOVED Hungry Howies pizza until now. My phobia is seafood- seriously. Anything like fish or shrimp or crab or any kind of animal that people eat from the water makes me SICK. I can't even walk past the seafood department in the stores without getting sick.

Umm yeah. So now you are all caught up on me, how are you doing? :P

Star1020 mentions breads without HFCS (please excuse my ignorance, but I'm guessing that is high fructose corn syrup?).  High fructose corn syrup is one of my all time most hated ingredients.  I moved to the US from Canada, and couldn't believe I couldn't find bread in the US without it!  Anyway, I'm pretty sure Pepperidge Farms' 15 grain bread is hfcs free, for those of you not near a Whole Foods (as I am not!) 

RE: anchovies as a fish/spice:  people may consider it a "spice" because they are mushed up in many things when cooking, but it is indeed a fish to the best of my knowledge! 

All of you who were surprised to find anchovy in your ceasar salad dressing have never made it from scratch, I guess: egg and anchovy are two of the ingredients that make a really great ceasar salad dressing! (If you happen to be into eating that sort of thing, which i am not anymore!)

Great thread.

Yeah, I was referring to high fructose corn syrup.  It makes me SO mad.  I mean, the whole point of eating whole grain breads is so they won't mess with blood glucose levels like white carbs, and then they go and put mass amounts of sugar into the bread?  Doesn't this defeat the purpose?  But still the bread companies do it, and then charge more for the loaf of bread because it says "100% Whole Grains" on the label and Americans happily buy it and think they're doing something good for themselves.  I hate how food companies just flat out lie to consumers in order to make more money while people all over this country are dying of complications from obesity and diabetes.

After one time of wanting to fire-bomb the bread aisle in a Giant, I made the decision to do all of my food shopping at Whole Foods and I've never gone back.

You can check out PETA.com. They are a bit radical for some people, but they have a wonderful section of food brands that are vegan and vegetarian. You can download it or order a pocket-sized copy. I think its under the "what to eat" section. They also have a list of cruelty-free clothing and footwear brands in the "what to buy" section to help you be totally cruelty-free!!

Sorry guys! Its peta2.com that has the list of foods and apparel companies!!

I completely agree with you guys about HFCS! I eat this one type of Oroweat that has only honey in it - I think it's called Healthy Grains, or something near that. Watch out for ingesting tylenol or advils - sometimes they have a gelatin cap or coating - that's a biggie. I got so upset about low-fat yogurt having gelatin, too - Mountain High is a good brand w/o the gelatin. Peeps, sadly, are on the naughty list. I used to eat about a thousand of those this time of year. I guess that's why I'm here, hahaha!

Somebody waaaaay back in the beginning of the post asked what 'kosher gelatin' is:  it is gelatin (a hydrolyzed form of collagen, usually boiled-down hooves or connective tissue) that not only has come from cows that are raised in and killed according to kosher laws, but has been processed in such a way that non-orthodox ( and i stress this) rabbinical authorities consider the end product to be no longer a 'meat substance.'  Bearing in mind, of course, that it is against kosher law to have meat products and milk products mix. 

There is such a thing as vegetarian gelatin (usually agar-agar, carageenan or pectin), but if the product you are perusing says "kosher gelatin" on the label, rest assured:  it's animal.

Whew!

Is this a 'trigger foods' thread? Mine are cookies and granola bars; STAY AWAY!!!!

what's wrong with gelatin? isn't it a plant?

yeah, if a hoof grew on a branch! ; ) Pectin might be what you're thinking of. It's from fruit.

There's a scene in Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Buffy's kid sister was wondering if there were a bunch of footless cows wandering around because their hoofs had been turned into gelatin...

This past month I've been getting into vegetarianism and I'm coming across all sorts of choices. Since I've been losing weight my favourite snack has been yogurt, and it nearly always contains gelatin. I found one brand of fat-free yogurt (Astro) that was had agar (from seaweed) instead of the evil animal gelatin. Unfortunately it was plain yogurt and I found it absolutely revolting. Their flavoured stuff had gelatin anyway.

I just gave up, bought the usual Danone Silhouette (gelatin and all) and put off purity for another day.

aha!  i am always in the same boat!

however, here's some gelatin-free yogurty goodness:

dannon natural

stonyfield farms

horizon organic

seven stars farm

aaaand, any number of store-brands tend to use pectin or nothin'.

or if you are really ambitious, you can make your own: http://fiascofarm.com/dairy/yogurt.htm

using cultures that you can buy here: http://www.dairyconnection.com/yogurt.htm

(they also supply vegetable rennet for any of you at-home cheesemakers out there.)

Maybe everyone already knew this, but Beano is not vegetarian (gelatin and from something else I read, contains "a fish product").