Vegetarians beware: there are pieces of dead animals everywhere! If you’ve decided to stop eating meat, you might soon realize that it’s not just the obvious meat products you have to give up. The more research you do, the more you realize there are bits of animals or meat by-products in all types of food that you assumed were vegetarian. 10. Apples vegitarianfoods1 Have you ever bought an apple and felt that it was rather waxy? Apples produce a natural wax to retain their moisture and stay fresh. After being picked apples are washed to remove dirt, which also removes their wax, so they’re coated in another wax. New waxes include carnauba, candellia or shellac. Carnauba and candellia are plant based, but shellac is derived from the lac bug. …show more content…
Color E120, also known as carmine, carminic acid or natural red #4, is extracted from the ground-up shell of the female cochineal insect. Cochineal can be found in food coloring, jellies, lollypops, strawberry milk flavoring, strawberry flavored yogurts, and many other red colored foods. Cochineal is also used to color lipsticks, clothing and pill coatings. If a packet states “all natural colors,” you can safely assume that natural red color is from the cochineal beetle, as most other red color additives are synthetically made. The use of cochineal as a red dye originated in Peru about 1500 years ago. As bugs as animals, anything containing cochineal coloring is not suitable for …show more content…
However, some yogurt contain gelatin, and some strawberry flavored yogurt may contain the previously discussed red coloring. Also look out for yogurt which contain added omega-3s — the omega-3 fatty acids are usually in the form of fish oil. To be sure your yogurt is vegetarian, always read the ingredients. Look for natural and plain yogurts as these are less likely to have unnecessary ingredients (although gelatin, cochineal and fish oil are all classed as natural ingredients, so don’t assume all natural yogurts are vegetarian). Not sure you can trust commercial yogurt brands now? You could also buy a yogurt maker and make the yogurt yourself so you know exactly what ingredients are in