Vanillin is the molecule that makes vanilla taste like vanilla, and most of it is made in a factory or from wood. Despite the internet's favourite rumour, it is not beaver.
Made fromSynthetic or plant sources
Also fromVanilla beans (natural extract)
VerdictVegan
Where it hides
Vanilla-flavoured foods and drinks
Baked goods and chocolate
Ice cream and desserts
Pharmaceuticals
What it is
Vanillin is the compound responsible for vanilla's flavour. A little comes from real vanilla pods, but most is made far more cheaply:
Primary source 01 / 01
Synthetic vanillin is now used more often than natural vanilla extract as a flavoring in foods, beverages, and pharmaceuticals.
Synthetic vanillin is made from petrochemicals or from lignin, a by-product of wood pulp, and natural vanillin comes from vanilla beans. All of these are vegan. The persistent rumour that vanilla flavour is castoreum, a beaver secretion, is wrong: castoreum is expensive and vanishingly rare in food, while vanillin is cheap and everywhere.
CastoreumCastoreum is a beaver gland secretion that the internet loves to put in your vanilla ice cream. It is an animal product, and also almost never in your ice cream anymore.
Natural flavours / natural flavorsMost 'natural flavours' really are plants and microbes. But the legal box is big enough to hold meat, dairy, eggs and even a secretion from a beaver, and the label almost never says which.
Caramel colour (E150)Caramel colour is burnt sugar, more or less, the brown in cola and gravy browning. It is almost always vegan, with a rare footnote about the sugar it starts from.
Frequently asked
Is synthetic vanilla vegan?
Yes. Synthetic vanillin is made from petrochemicals or wood-derived lignin, and natural vanillin comes from vanilla beans. Both are vegan.
Is vanilla flavour made from beaver?
No. That refers to castoreum, which is expensive and almost never used in food. Vanilla flavour is vanillin, from plants or synthesis, and is vegan.
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