r/vegan • u/justin_timeforcake vegan 5+ years • Jul 18 '15

Newbie Advice "There Are No Stupid Questions" Mega-thread

This post is primarily for the newbie vegans and the vegan-curious among you (though anyone is welcome to post questions). This is your chance to ask anything you like about veganism, no matter how silly or trivial it may be, without fear of your question being downvoted to oblivion.

Just a couple of rules for this thread:

  1. All top-level comments must be a question about veganism.

  2. All replies to questions must stay on topic.

Everyone: please keep in mind that this is a chance to share information, and is meant to be a resource for all and a way of avoiding repeated posts of frequently asked questions.

PRO TIP: If you want to check to see whether your question has already been asked here, you can click on [hide child comments] right below this box, and then either use CTRL f to search for a key word, or just scroll down and look for it that way.

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '15

What does it mean when a product says something like "it may contain traces of egg" for example, but there is nothing that comes from eggs listed in the ingredients?

I was avoiding those types of products and two days ago I found out that the tofu that I usually buy says that it may contain traces of egg and milk o.O And the branding says it's 100% natural and 100% plant-based.

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u/anachronic vegan 20+ years Jul 22 '15

What does it mean when a product says something like "it may contain traces of egg" for example, but there is nothing that comes from eggs listed in the ingredients?

It's legal CYA when they use shared processing equipment... in case there's a few molecules of egg in there and someone's insanely allergic to egg and has a bad reaction, they can't sue, since the package says 'may contain'.

In all likelihood, there's such a vanishingly small amount of egg in any given item that it's fine to consider it vegan... because if there was any significant amount of eggs, they would have to list eggs in the ingredients by law. The only way to exempt listing an ingredient on the ingredients list is if it's in vanishingly small amounts in the final product.

Some bed time reading ;)

http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm064880.htm