Vegan party food?

[VeganQuery]

Hosting a birthday party soon and two of the guests are vegans. We're catering ourselves doing lunchboxes for the kids and I'd ideally like them all to be the same so that it doesn't matter where the children sit.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what sort of stuff would work well in a party lunch box. I was going to put in bags of party rings or Oreos because I thought both of them were suitable but when shopping tonight the packets said suitable for vegetarians which gave me pause for thought on buying them?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Yes, that's exactly as I thought.
Sometimes things are labelled as vegetarian but are perfectly fine for vegans.

Any risk of contamination in a factory with an animal product will not make it suitable for vegans

I've worked in factories. Vegan products can be made in the same factory as non vegan products. Even on the same line.
They'll have a thorough clean down between switching (and I mean thorough, they swab test and all sorts)
Even if you're just meaning that the factory might produce vegan and non vegan stuff, they do keep it all separate. Same room, but separate.

This, for example - labelled vegan, but also labelled as not suitable for people with egg or milk allergy because there's a tiny risk of crosscontamination. www.marksandspencer.com/food/mushroom-pie/p/fdp60717085#intid=pid_pg1pip96g2r2c2

If you are a strict vegan then why eat something that could contain something that is not vegan ie egg.
Thats why these icing sugars aren’t vegan either it’s added or it’s a potential contaminant and the vegetarian and vegan societies have researched and registered as appropriate.

Of interest
Theres a lot of research on sugars by them
This article ( see title page as I can’t link ) sets out the complexities across the world with all sorts of conflicting wordings. This piece is re organic sugars mainly
For example a company might think their sugar is vegan because the bone char isn’t from a slaughtered animal but one that has died naturally.
Another might say none of the bone char ends up in the sugar so that’s OK

What both societies do say is that if they have approved a product as vegan or vegetarian they have worked through all of those complexities for us.

Hence, as I’ve said, always go by what’s on the label.
If it’s vegetarian it is ok for vegetarians but not vegans
If it’s vegan it’s fine for both
If there’s nothing then the vegetarian and vegan society have either not been supplied with enough ( or any) information to verify the product or it isn’t either.

nb I haven’t posted the whole piece just a couple of pages of interest

If you are a strict vegan then why eat something that could contain something that is not vegan ie egg
When products say "could contain egg"or "could contain milk"it's just covering themselves from an allergy point of view as it has been produced on the same line as milk or egg. It doesn't mean they are present in the product. That would have to be declared.

The icing sugar has powdered egg whites added.
Thats why it’s labelled as vegetarian

If the icing sugar was simply being produced somewhere with a contamination risk but without egg actually being added then it would be labelled as vegan.
The icing sugars I noted above are not labelled as vegan because this is not simply a contamination issue

It’s all in the label on the product and any additional notes.
Hence if you are vegan go for vegan labelled stuff not vegetarian

Another article.
This one on contamination

If you are a strict vegan then why eat something that could contain something that is not vegan ie egg.

I see it like my kitchen at home. One person in my household is vegetarian, not vegan, and therefore there is the potential for tiny amounts of cross contamination as I don’t sterilise my house. A factory that produces vegetarian and vegan foods has the potential for contamination in trace amounts I suppose.

I am vegan for animal rights reasons, the fact that a factory also uses egg in the production of other products which may have contaminated a vegan product is really neither here nor there, the point is I am not using my money to purchase products made using animal products and thus encouraging further exploitation of animals.

Now there are a handful of vegans who would say that the only ethical thing is to buy all products only from vegan companies but as one of the key parts of the definition of veganism includes the words 'as far as is practicable' it is only a handful.

The icing sugar has powdered egg whites added.

No, it doesn't! Read the ingredients list. No egg. Only royal icing has added egg white.

What brand of icing sugar contains powdered egg? I've never ever seen that in normal icing sugar. @StandingSideBySide you seem determined to make out that buying vegan products is Very Extremely Difficult

And if icing sugar actually contained egg then it would legally have to carry an allergy warning and list egg in bold as an ingredient.

My friend who’s vegan won’t eat anything that isn’t labelled as vegan. Neither will they eat anything that isn’t separated physically for fear of contamination from non vegan food. For example eating a (vegan) chip off my plate when there is pizza (cheese) next to the chips but not touching. Sometimes it has made me feel a bit upset and like I’m gross, but I’ve never known how to respond to this.

It’s not difficult.
We have organisations doing the work for us.
Years ago very little was labelled and without the internet it was practically impossible to find out what a lot of the weird ingredient names were in the first place when some products weren’t certified at all.

The societies have made it very easy now.
Research is everything !

im beginning to sound like an advert for the Vegetarian and Vegan Society.

It’s not about you. It’s her choice and what she is comfortable with. Why would you need to respond to it? Just accept that she doesn’t want to eat it, end of story. Just eat your food.

Lots of things are labelled vegetarian but not vegan either...

1. Because there is a risk of cross contamination which is a potential problem for allergy sufferers.
2. Because it costs a lot of money to get things certified vegan.

Egg would 100% be labelled because it's a major allergen.

As a vegan checking ingredients my method is...

1. Check for vegetarian/vegan labelling
2. Vegan? Great. Purchase
3. Vegetarian? Quick check ingredients list for allergens in bold.
4. No milk or eggs? Looking hopeful!
5. Read ingredients properly to check for ingredients considered vegetarian but not vegan friendly not highlighted for allergy purposes e.g. honey, shellac, beeswax etc.

Plenty of perfectly vegan foods aren't labelled as such, but they're fine.