10 foods that aren't vegan, read from the makers' own labels

Campbell’s Vegetable soup, Old El Paso Traditional Refried Beans, Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Planters dry roasted peanuts, Altoids, Lea & Perrins, Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme, MorningStar Farms Grillers and McDonald’s fries all list an animal ingredient on the maker’s own page. On five of them, nothing in the allergen line points to it.

A US food label has to declare nine major allergens, milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame, and the rule stops there. Gelatin, lard and honey are not on it. So Kellogg’s lists gelatin in Frosted Mini-Wheats and its allergen statement says only that the cereal contains wheat. Altoids lists gelatin as the last of four ingredients and its allergen field reads “N/A”. General Mills’ label for Old El Paso Traditional Refried Beans has lard and hydrogenated lard in the ingredients and nothing at all after “Contains”. If you have trained yourself to read the Contains line first, these are the products that walk straight past you. Gelatin turns up in candy too, and our roundup of vegan Halloween candy names the gummies that use it.

Which animal ingredients the allergen line misses

The allergen statement exists for people with food allergies. The 2004 federal allergen labeling law named eight major allergens, and a 2021 law added sesame as the ninth from January 1, 2023, while the FDA recognizes more than 160 foods that can cause allergic reactions. A major allergen has to be named either in parentheses after the ingredient, as in “whey (milk)”, or in a “Contains” statement next to the list. That rule catches the dairy in MorningStar Farms’ Grillers and the anchovies in Lea & Perrins, because milk, eggs and fish are on it. It was never meant to catch everything an animal produced.

Five ingredients on this page fall outside it:

Gelatin, which is animal-derived, in the Frosted Mini-Wheats, the Planters peanuts, the Altoids and regular Jet-Puffed marshmallows.
Lard, rendered pork fat, in the Old El Paso beans.
Honey, in Honey Nut Cheerios.
Beef stock, beef tallow and beef extract, in Campbell’s Vegetable soup, whose allergen line names egg, wheat, sesame and soy but not the beef.
Vitamin D3, which turns up in fortified foods. The National Institutes of Health says D3 is typically made from lanolin, the grease in sheep’s wool, though a version from lichen also exists, and a label that just says “vitamin D3” doesn’t tell you which.

Those five are what to scan for once the allergen line comes up clean.

10 foods that aren’t vegan, read from the makers’ pages

We left out anything whose name gives it away, so there is no cheese or chicken soup here, and anything our other roundups already cover in detail, such as gelatin gummies and lard pie crusts. Every product below is one a vegan could reasonably pick up without a second look. We read each maker’s own product page in October 2026. “Flagged” means the product’s allergen statement names the animal ingredient, or a major allergen that comes from it.

Food	Animal ingredient	Flagged in the allergen line?
Campbell’s Vegetable Soup (condensed)	Beef stock, beef tallow, beef extract, egg whites	Egg only
Old El Paso Traditional Refried Beans	Lard, hydrogenated lard	No
Honey Nut Cheerios	Honey, vitamin D3	No (almonds only)
Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats Bite Size	Gelatin	No (wheat only)
Planters Salted Dry Roasted Peanuts	Gelatin	No: gelatin is not a major allergen
Altoids Classic Peppermint	Gelatin	No (“N/A”)
Lea & Perrins The Original Worcestershire Sauce	Anchovies	Yes, anchovy
Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme	Dried egg whites	Yes, egg
MorningStar Farms Grillers Original	Egg whites, calcium caseinate	Yes, egg and milk
McDonald’s World Famous Fries (US)	Natural beef flavor with hydrolyzed milk	Yes, milk

Campbell’s Vegetable Soup

The name does a lot of work here. On Campbell’s own page the product is sold as Vegetable Soup and then, a line further down, as Vegetable with Beef Stock Soup, and beef stock is the first ingredient. Further down the list come beef tallow and beef extract, and the alphabet pasta is made with egg whites. The allergen line reads “Contains: Egg, Wheat, Sesame, Soy”, so a reader who only checks for milk and egg will catch it, but for the egg, not the beef. The obvious swap fails too. Campbell’s Vegetarian Vegetable Soup drops the beef, but its alphabet pasta still lists egg whites, and its allergen line reads “Contains: Egg, Wheat”. Vegetarian is not vegan, and this is the can that proves it. Skip both, and read the subtitle on any canned soup with “vegetable” in the name.

Old El Paso Traditional Refried Beans

Cooked pinto beans, water, and then, inside the 2% or less, salt, lard, chili pepper, spice, sugar and hydrogenated lard, among others. General Mills’ SmartLabel page lists nothing after “Contains”, which is accurate and no help at all. Refried beans read as a bean product, and the lard sits in the small print. The fix is on the same shelf: Old El Paso’s Vegetarian Refried Beans list the same beans, water and seasonings with soybean oil where the lard was. The natural flavor in both is unsourced on General Mills’ page, but nothing animal is listed in the vegetarian can. Our store-bought vegan Christmas food roundup found the same fat in Pillsbury’s refrigerated pie crusts.

Honey Nut Cheerios

Honey is the fourth ingredient, after whole grain oats, sugar and corn starch, and the name says so. The one people miss is at the end: General Mills lists vitamin D3 among the added vitamins, and the label doesn’t say whether it came from lanolin or lichen. The allergen line mentions only almonds, from the natural almond flavor. If it is the honey you are replacing at home, our roundup of vegan honey alternatives reads eight bee-free syrups from their makers’ pages.

Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats Bite Size

Whole grain wheat, sugar, and, inside the 2% or less, brown rice syrup and gelatin. The allergen statement says “CONTAINS WHEAT INGREDIENTS” and nothing more, so the frosted square looks like a grain product all the way down the box. Kellogg’s page we read is for the 32 oz bag; if you buy another size, check that box rather than trusting this one.

Planters Salted Dry Roasted Peanuts

Peanuts, then a seasoning blend in the 2% or less that includes sea salt, sugar, cornstarch, torula yeast and gelatin. A jar of peanuts with gelatin in it is the purest example on this list of a product nobody thinks to check. The fix is one shelf over. Planters lists its Lightly Salted Dry Roasted Peanuts as peanuts and sea salt, and sells its Unsalted Dry Roasted Peanuts with no added ingredients. So the gelatin rides in with the full seasoning, not with the peanuts, and the jar you want is the one that says less on the front.

Altoids Classic Peppermint

Four ingredients: sugar, gum arabic, natural flavors including peppermint oil, and gelatin. The allergen field on the Altoids page says “N/A”, which is technically right and practically the reason Altoids end up in vegan pockets. Don’t switch flavors to get around it. Wintergreen, Spearmint and Cinnamon Altoids list gelatin too, each with its own artificial color. A tin of mints is not where most people expect an animal product, and that is exactly why it is on this list.

Lea & Perrins The Original Worcestershire Sauce

Kraft Heinz’s product description lists molasses, tamarind extract, white vinegar, chili pepper extract and sugar. The ingredient list a few lines down adds anchovies, seventh of twelve, and the allergen line reads “CONTAINS: ANCHOVY”. So this one is flagged, and still worth naming, because the marketing copy leaves the fish out entirely. The reduced sodium bottle is no way out either: it lists anchovies sixth and declares “CONTAINS: FISH(ANCHOVIES)”. Kraft Heinz’s own page suggests it for marinades, meatloaf and Bloody Mary mix, so it can turn up in a dish or a drink that never mentions it.

Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme

You would expect gelatin, and regular Jet-Puffed Jumbo marshmallows do list it, sixth, after corn syrup, sugar, dextrose, water and modified corn starch, with the allergen field marked “Not Available”. The creme in the jar is made differently: corn syrup, sugar and water, with dried egg whites in the 2% or less, and “CONTAINS: EGG” on the label. Either way the answer is no, but for two different animal ingredients, so a vegan marshmallow and a vegan marshmallow creme are separate shopping problems.

MorningStar Farms Grillers Original

A veggie burger from a brand whose product pages are headed “Vegetarian Foods & Vegan Meat Alternative Products”, and it isn’t vegan. The ingredients include egg whites and calcium caseinate, a milk protein, and the allergen line says “CONTAINS SOY, WHEAT, EGG AND MILK INGREDIENTS”. The certifications line reads “KOSHER DAIRY, VEGETARIAN”. It is not an outlier. Of the four burgers on MorningStar’s veggie burger page, the Grillers Prime and the Spicy Black Bean burgers also declare egg and milk. The Garden Veggie Patties are the exception, marked vegan alongside a kosher dairy mark, with soy and wheat as the only declared allergens. The allergen line does its job here; the brand’s vegan range is what makes it easy to grab the wrong box.

McDonald’s World Famous Fries

McDonald’s US lists the frying oil as a blend that includes natural beef flavor, which it describes as containing hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients, and the allergen line says “Contains: Wheat, Milk”. That is the US recipe, read from McDonald’s US site; it is the reason a side order of potatoes and oil is not vegan. The same flavoring is why the allergen line names wheat as well, so the fries are not a gluten-free order either. If you are ordering fries anywhere, ask what they are fried in and whether the oil carries a flavoring.

How to catch the ones the allergen line misses

Read the allergen line first, because it is quick and the nine major allergens have to be declared. Read inside the ingredient list as well, since the same rule lets a label name the allergen in parentheses instead, as in “whey (milk)”. If both are clean, read the ingredient list for the five words from the top of this page: gelatin, lard, honey, beef or anything else named after an animal, and vitamin D3. Two of these show how little reading it takes. Altoids’ list runs to four ingredients, and the Old El Paso beans keep their lard inside the 2% or less, right next to the salt and spices.

Then look at what the product is called. “Vegetable with Beef Stock” is printed on Campbell’s own page, and “Honey Nut” is in the cereal’s name, so the name sometimes gives it away before the label does.

The fix for several of these is the version next to it on the shelf rather than a different brand, as with Planters’ lightly salted jar, Old El Paso’s vegetarian beans and MorningStar’s Garden Veggie Patties. Campbell’s vegetarian can shows why the swap needs reading too. Read the swap the same way you read the original, ingredient list first. Our guide to checking ingredients covers the other names worth knowing, from casein to carmine.