Traces of animal products in vegan and vegetarian foods

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Mar 2, 2021 - Foods

Traces of animal products in vegan and vegetarian foods

In the guidelines for vegan and vegetarian foods it is regulated that unintentional entries of animal products do not preclude a label as "vegan" or "vegetarian". This applies as long as the entries are unavoidable despite compliance with good manufacturing practice. Thresholds, such as those published by ALS/ALTS for allergens, are not available from the authorities.

An orientation value is provided by the guideline of the V-Label from July 26, 2019. According to this, contamination with animal substances in the final product should be below 0.1%.

A declaration as "vegan" or "vegetarian" is not precluded by exceeding the orientation value if sufficient precautions have been taken to avoid contamination with animal substances. This must then be justified by the producer.

In our Tentamus laboratories, we regularly perform screening to exclude animal components for vegetarian and vegan foods. We provide you with fast and reliable results.

Our customer advisors are happy to answer any questions you may have.

Source:

German Federation for Food Law and Food Science e.V., www.bll.de
V-Label Licensing Guidelines, www.v-label.eu