Vegan ice cream under scrutiny: Few anomalies
Jun 10, 2026 - Foods
Vegan ice cream under scrutiny: Few anomalies
The market for vegan ice cream is growing strongly, driven by plant-based alternatives to milk and eggs. Technological advances in plant-based proteins enable an ever-greater variety of ice cream creations.
Vegan ice cream must not contain any animal ingredients such as milk, eggs, honey, or gelatin. To achieve the typical creaminess and consistency of milk or cream ice cream, plant-based alternatives such as oat, soy, coconut, almond, pea or fava bean protein are used. Sorbets and popsicles are also not automatically vegan. They can contain milk components, honey, gelatin, animal dyes, or protein. Therefore, it is especially worthwhile to check the list of ingredients on processed products.
Consumers can be guided by labels such as the well-known V-Label. This is awarded after checking the ingredients and production processes. Also, products labeled simply as "vegan" must meet the legal requirements for vegan foods.
Investigation results:
- Prepackaged products: all vegan, minimal milk traces with notice, no egg.
- Ice cream parlors: only half completely vegan, three samples with unlabelled milk protein, no egg.
- Conclusion: Of 55 tested "vegan" ice cream samples, 52 were unobjectionable. Action is needed for only three open samples from ice cream parlors due to unlabelled milk traces.
In our Tentamus laboratories, we regularly conduct the necessary tests for animal components as well as labeling checks. We provide you with fast and reliable results and are happy to advise you on all matters concerning product safety. If you have any questions, our customer advisors will be happy to assist you.
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