Is tofu plant-based? Yes, except egg tofu. 7 packs and a press checked

Yes. Plain tofu is soybeans and water set with a coagulant, and the coagulants a 1999 review for the USDA’s organic program names are mineral salts and glucono delta-lactone, none of which comes from an animal. The exception to look for is egg tofu: Sunrise Soya’s Mandarin Egg Tube Tofu lists eggs right after water.

The maker doesn’t hide it. Sunrise’s own page for the tube says, “This is the only product made by Sunrise that is not vegan”, which makes it a tofu where the company does your label reading for you. It is made in Canada, and Sunrise’s where-to-buy page lists stores only in Canada, but an online Asian grocer had it at roughly $3 to $3.50 for the 245 g tube across our visits in October 2026. Even the soy is optional. Big Mountain sells a soy-free tofu made from fava beans.

What turns soy milk into tofu

“Some coagulant must be used to make tofu,” says the 1999 review of magnesium chloride written for the USDA’s organic program, and it names nigari, calcium sulfate, calcium chloride and glucono delta-lactone among them. Which of them your block uses is on its ingredient list, and our guide to nigari and gypsum reads that list brand by brand. A 2024 review in the journal Foods sorts tofu coagulants into salts, acids, enzymes and a newer group of emulsion and composite coagulants, and calls the salts “the oldest and most widely used”.

The old version of this page said some makers set tofu with gelatin. Neither review we read lists gelatin as a coagulant. The animal-derived materials we did find were lab experiments: the 2024 review describes researchers trying crab shell extract, calcium from eggshell powder, nanoscale fish bone and whey protein added to emulsion coagulants. None of the seven packs below lists anything like them, and two, the Pumfu block and Hodo’s yuba, list no coagulant at all. The egg tube’s list carries magnesium chloride and glucono-delta-lactone too, the same coagulants you’ll find in vegan blocks: Wildwood uses the first, Mori-Nu the second.

Six tofus, a pumpkin-seed block and a press

Protein is per serving as each maker’s own page or pictured panel gives it; the per-100 g column is our arithmetic, so the servings compare. Prices below are the sellers’ own, as of October 2026, and change.

Product	Vegan?	Base	Protein per serving	Per 100 g (our arithmetic)
Sunrise Mandarin Egg Tube Tofu	No, eggs	Soybeans and eggs	6 g per 85 g	7.1 g
Mori-Nu Silken Firm Tofu	Yes	Soybeans	6 g per 85 g	7.1 g
Wildwood Organic High Protein Tofu	Yes	Soybeans	14 g per 91 g	15.4 g
Wildwood Baked Teriyaki Tofu	Yes	Soybeans	14 to 16 g per 99 g	14.1 to 16.2 g
Hodo Organic Yuba Sheets	Yes	Soybeans	21 g per 85 g	24.7 g
Pumfu The Original	Yes	Pumpkin seeds	17 g per 113 g	15.0 g
Big Mountain Soy-Free Tofu	Yes	Fava beans	16 g per 85 g	18.8 g

“Yes” here means the ingredient list names no animal ingredient, not that the maker has certified anything.

Sunrise Mandarin Egg Tube Tofu

Water, eggs, non-GMO soybean, hydrolyzed corn protein, high oleic sunflower oil, then potassium pyrophosphate, salt, magnesium chloride and glucono-delta-lactone. That grocer’s listing gives the same ingredient as “egg liquid”, and Sunrise’s own panel shows 150 mg of cholesterol in an 85 g serving. There is nothing to weigh up. If you are vegan, this is the one to leave in the case, and the maker says so first.

Mori-Nu Silken Firm Tofu

Mori-Nu says “Refrigeration not needed until opened”, so this is the box that can live in the cupboard. Inside are water, soybeans, soy protein isolate, glucono-delta-lactone and calcium chloride, with 6 g of protein in a 3 oz serving, tied with the egg tube for the lowest protein per 100 g in the table. Silken is for blending, into a sauce or a dessert. Buy it for a stir-fry and you will be scraping it off the pan.

Wildwood Organic High Protein Tofu

Wildwood calls its vacuum pack its firmest tofu, and says it is “vacuum-sealed, no water and no need to press”. The list is water, organic soybeans, magnesium chloride and calcium sulfate, soy declared. Each 91 g serving has 14 g of protein, 5 servings to the pack, and the pack pictured on the page reads 16 oz (454 g), with the water already drained and pressed. This is our pick for cubes that go straight into a pan. It is the wrong block for anything you meant to blend smooth.

Wildwood Baked Teriyaki Tofu

Flavored tofu is where an animal ingredient would hide, because the sauce is a second recipe on top of the first. This one passes. Besides the tofu itself, set with nigari and calcium sulfate, the list runs to organic tamari, rice vinegar, brown rice syrup, tomato paste, salted sake, garlic, canola oil, cane sugar, ginger, garlic powder and ginger powder, soy declared. Wildwood’s page text gives 16 g of protein and 450 mg of sodium per 99 g piece, two pieces a pack, while the pack pictured on the same page says 14 g and 300 mg and lists its sake as water, organic rice, koji and salt. The pack in your hand is the one to believe. If you are going to drown it in your own sauce anyway, the plain block above does the job without the sodium.

Hodo Organic Yuba Sheets

Not a block at all. Yuba is tofu skin, which Hodo makes by filming the protein straight off organic soy milk, and the ingredients are just water and organic soybeans. A 3 oz serving carries 21 g of protein, the most per 100 g in the table, and a pack holds 2 sheets. Hodo’s page gives no price. The pack pictured there weighs 5 oz (142 g), suggests cutting the sheets into cubes or strips in place of chicken, and says to eat it within 3 days of opening. At about one and a half servings a pack, it will not stretch to a family stir-fry.

Pumfu The Original

Filtered water and organic pumpkin seeds, nothing else. The pack calls it vegan and soy free, “Pre-pressed (less excess water)”, and says to use it within 5 days of opening. Half the 8 oz block is 320 calories, 28 g of fat and 17 g of protein, and Foodies Vegan sells the block for $5.97 on its own store. The label also says it is made in a facility that uses cashews. If that rules a food out for you, it rules this one out.

Big Mountain Soy-Free Tofu

Water, fava beans, sea salt and calcium sulphate. Big Mountain says it “tastes, cooks and functions exactly like your medium-firm Soy Tofu”, though the pack pictured on the same page says extra firm. Its panel gives 16 g of protein per 85 g serving, 4 servings in a 340 g pack, and the page prints “DO NOT FREEZE THIS PRODUCT” in capitals. The beans are Canadian, and the brand’s store locator lists US stores as well as Canadian ones, though not which of them carry this block.

The flaw is the bean, for some readers. MedlinePlus lists fava beans among the triggers that can break down red blood cells in people with G6PD deficiency. Big Mountain says it uses low-vicine beans, and nothing we read says whether that makes this block safe for anyone with the condition. If you have G6PD deficiency, ask your doctor before you buy it.

OXO Good Grips Tofu Press

$29.99 at OXO, with two pressing strengths; on the first, OXO says most of the water is out after 15 minutes, and the press holds the block above what drains off. It comes apart and is dishwasher safe. Before buying one, look at what you press. Wildwood sells its vacuum pack as needing no press, and Pumfu comes pre-pressed; if those are your blocks the press is a gadget for the back of the drawer. If heating comes next, our guide to microwaving tofu starts from the same no-press blocks.

How to check a pack yourself

Read past the word tofu to the ingredient list, then to the line under it. Eggs, milk, fish and soybeans are all on the FDA’s list of major food allergens, and the label has to declare each one’s food source at least once, in the ingredient list or in a “contains” statement. A contains line that names an animal food settles it.

That line has limits. Honey and gelatin are not among the nine major allergens, so the allergen rules don’t require a contains statement to name them; for those you read the whole ingredient list, sauce and all. On a flavored tofu, read the part after the tofu, because that is the second recipe. On a soy-free one, the bean is the thing to check.

For the block that goes into dinner tonight, buy the Wildwood vacuum pack and skip the press. If tofu is standing in for meat on your plate, our rundown of what vegans eat instead of meat sets a tofu block next to seitan and tempeh.