Any other foods I need to watch out for?

[Spanglecrabs]

DP and I have been avoiding eating meat since the start of the year. I was absent mindedly reading the ingredient list on a yogurt I had just finished and found it contained pork gelatine.

It's made me a bit fed up to be honest. I still crave the taste of meat sometimes so the fact that I feel like Ive avoided food I love only to be caught out by a rubbish old yoghurt is very frustrating.

I do check labels but until now i havent where it wouldnt make sense for the product to contain meat.

Do any wise Mumsnetters know of other products that me or others might slip up on?

Parmesan isn't vegetarian and therefore a lot of pesto isn't either.

It's not just yoghurts OP, you will need to check other deserts like mousses and some sweets too .

Worcestershire sauce.

Whey powder is in a surprising number of things

Whey powder isn't meat. Its comes from milk

www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/foods-you-think-are-vegetarian-arent

The beer one gets a lot of people - many beers and other drinks are filtered with these things calling "finings" that can be made from fish swim bladders. The finished beer doesn't contain fish, but fish bits were used in the production, basically.

Most yoghurts are vegetarian but it is worth checking. Always check cheeses to see if they are veggie friendly. Most British cheeses are and you can get Parmesan style in most supermarkets that are. In fact most supermarket cheeses are clearly labelled.
Stuffed pasta due to the cheese they use.
Sweets-jelly ones (M&S do a food choice of veggie friendly ones) and often marshmallow.
Cakes and shop bought desserts are always worth checking.
You will soon get used to what is ok and what isn't.

Thanks everyone. I have a few things to check in my fridge and cupboards but it would seem that its likely I've slipped up more than once.

Worchester sauce has anchovies in it, if you're avoiding fish.

Cakes and gateaux with glazes or mousse usually contain gelatine. Jelly does too, obviously.

Worcestershire sauce. Why did autocorrect change that?

Henderson’s Relish is a veggie version of Worcestershire Sauce if you weren’t already aware.

@dementedpixie

Whey powder isn't meat. Its comes from milk

But it's separated from milk using rennet, which generally is not vegetarian

Be careful with Thai dishes that can contain fish sauce.

Some vitamin and fish oil capsules etc have gelatine.

Why are you avoiding meat? If it’s environmental reasons etc - the tiniest bit of gelatine wont have a major impact. I’m a veggie for moral reasons but tbh wouldn’t get down about that - there are many more animals in the world not having been raised to be killed due to my choices and that’s enough for me. Better a happy meat eater than a miserable veggie I say! Whatever you can do to reduce meat is good for the world and our fellow being so don’t be hard on yourself.

I cut out meat for a combination of the usual environmental and welfare reasons. I started off just seeing it would be to cut meat for January. I often work late into the evening and found I was eating less fast food too.

I'm not beating myself up. I think im a bit cross that there is no obligation to label food as unsuitable for vegetarians where there is the potential for confusion.

I think ya a tiny bit u (I know I know)
food is very well labelled in the UK/the EU.

what I find more concerning is the lack of information on manufacturing steps like for wine/beer as above.

Labelling a product suitable for vegetarians is a positive marketing strategy so I'm always wary of products that seem veggie but aren't labelled as such - might be something like a manufacturing process, additive, cross-contamination etc that makes it non veggie

@Spanglecrabs

I cut out meat for a combination of the usual environmental and welfare reasons. I started off just seeing it would be to cut meat for January. I often work late into the evening and found I was eating less fast food too.

I'm not beating myself up. I think im a bit cross that there is no obligation to label food as unsuitable for vegetarians where there is the potential for confusion.

It’s completely unreasonable to expect food to be label as unsuitable for vegetarians. Otherwise they’d up having to label food as unsuitable for vegans, gluten allergies, milk allergies, onion allergies, people on medications that interact with grapefruit etc etc. Where would it end?!

Whole yoghurt or plain yoghurt won't have gelatine in! They put the gelatine in to stabilise/thicken low fat/low sugar type of yoghurt.
Whole milk yoghurt (with or without fruit) is much better for you nutritionally.