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Ingredient Label Scanner

Paste any ingredients list. We flag the animal-derived entries and the ambiguous ones — hidden dairy proteins, insect dyes, E-numbers, wool-derived vitamins — and give you a swap for each.

Scanner

Paste. Scan. Decide.

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Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, stored or sent anywhere.

How to read a label

Three habits that make shopping fast.

Read the allergen line first. In the EU, UK and many other markets, milk and egg must be emphasised in bold or capitals. That single line rules out most non-vegan products in under a second.

Learn ten words, not a hundred. Whey, casein, gelatine, carmine, shellac, lysozyme, isinglass, lanolin, honey and albumen cover the overwhelming majority of real-world hits. Everything else is rare or ambiguous.

Treat "may contain" as noise. That's cross-contamination advice for people with allergies, not an ingredient. It doesn't mean the product contains animal products.

FAQ

Questions, answered.

What are the most common hidden animal ingredients?
Whey, casein and sodium caseinate (dairy), gelatine, carmine or E120 (crushed insects), shellac or E904 (insect resin), lysozyme (egg white), isinglass (fish bladder, used to fine drinks), and lanolin-derived vitamin D3 (sheep wool).
Is E471 vegan?
Sometimes. Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids can be made from plant oils or animal fat, and the label rarely says which. Treat it as ambiguous and prefer products carrying a vegan certification mark, or ask the manufacturer.
Is 'natural flavouring' vegan?
Unknown from the label alone. In most jurisdictions the term covers both plant and animal sources without further disclosure. It's usually plant-derived, but if it matters to you, look for certification or contact the brand.
Is sugar vegan?
Beet sugar always is. Some cane sugar — mainly in the United States — is filtered through bone char from cattle. Organic, unrefined and beet sugars avoid this entirely.
Is vitamin D3 vegan?
Usually not: most D3 is extracted from lanolin in sheep's wool. Lichen-derived D3 is vegan and increasingly common, and D2 is always plant-based.
Does the scanner send my data anywhere?
No. The whole check runs in your browser against a local list. Nothing you paste is uploaded, logged or stored.

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