Which e-numbers are vegan?

Taylor

Feb 13

As with all things vegan, there is always something new to learn. Now if you are following a plant based diet then it is likely that you haven't come across e-numbers before. I won't get into a debate (not now anyway) about whether e-numbers are good or bad for you, but I am someone who very much believes that a balanced diet is the best diet. E-numbers, in my experience, tend to be most common in candy and sweet treats. Now while there are a lot of wonderful vegan sweeties and candies out there, there are also a lot of accidentally vegan sweeties on the market. One of the big things that really confused me when checking candies though, were the e-numbers.

Upon further research though, I feel it would be quicker to list the e-numbers that are never, EVER vegan friendly. These include:

120: Cochineal; a red pigment obtained from cochineal insects. It can also be labelled as Camine, Natural Red 4 or Carmine Lake.
441 - Gelatine. This is obtained from the collagen of animal bones or skin, mainly pigs and cattle. Now in some cases the packaging will list which animal (bovine for example) but some do not. I have seen debate that if it lists the animal, then it is animal based, but if no animal listed then it is plant based. I personally have not taken that risk so I just avoid it all together.
542: Bone phosphate. Created by crushing the bones of animals. This is not approved for use in the EU, so those of us in the UK are unlikely to come across it. however, may be something be wary of now that the UK have left the EU.
901: Beeswax.
904: Shellac. This is a resin that is secreted by a species of lac insects in Asia.
913: Lanolin. This is grease derived from the wool of sheep. Again, not something approved of for use in the EU, but may want to be aware of it now that the UK is out of the EU.
966: Lactitol. This sweetener is generally derived from milk.
1105: Lysosyme. A preservative usually obtained from eggs.

If you come across any of the above in an ingredients list, avoid the product all together.

Now the more complicated numbers are ingredients that can come from both animal based sources or plant based sources. Naturally not many manufacturers will state which source the ingredient is from, unless they have already labelled the product as vegan friendly or listed any potential allergens in the ingredients. These include the following most commonly seen e-numbers:

E270: Lactic acid
E322: Lecithin
E422: Glycerol
E442: Ammonium phosphatides
E445: Glycerol esters of wood rosins
E470(a & b): Sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium salts of fatty acids

There are a few others but these are the ones I find that tend to cause the most confusion. They also tend to be the ones that I find most commonly. In my experience though, these e-numbers are usually included in a very long list of e-numbers and it's probably best to avoid that product completely if it contains nothing but e-numbers.