'Plant-based' marketing doesn't guarantee vegan. Animal-derived ingredients hide as gelatine, whey, casein, carmine (E120), shellac (E904) and certain mono- and diglycerides.
PickEat checks every ingredient against animal sources and tells you whether a product is genuinely vegan.
A red sweet or yoghurt may be coloured with carmine (E120), made from insects, and a glazed sweet can use shellac (E904) — both animal-derived.
'Plant-based' isn't the same as vegan
The word 'plant-based' is everywhere now, and it sells — but it isn't regulated the way you might hope. A product can lean hard on plant-based imagery and still contain milk, egg, honey or an animal-derived additive. Front-of-pack marketing tells you what a brand wants you to feel; only the ingredient list tells you what's actually inside.
That gap is where most accidental slip-ups happen. A 'veggie' label means vegetarian, not vegan. A dark chocolate can contain milk fat. A sweet that looks innocent can be set with gelatine. Catching these means reading every list carefully — which is exactly the chore a scanner exists to remove.
The animal ingredients hiding in plain sight
Some are well known: gelatine (from animal collagen) in sweets and desserts, and whey, casein and lactose from milk in countless products. Others are far less obvious. Carmine, or cochineal (E120), is a red colour made from insects. Shellac (E904), used to glaze sweets and fruit, comes from a beetle secretion. Honey and beeswax (E901) are animal products too.
It gets subtler still. Isinglass (from fish) is used to clarify some beers and wines, L-cysteine (E920), a dough conditioner, can come from feathers or hair, and vitamin D3 is often derived from lanolin in sheep's wool. Many omega-3 supplements use fish oil. These are the ingredients that turn a seemingly vegan product non-vegan.
Why E-numbers are the hardest part
The trickiest additives are the ambiguous ones. Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E471), a very common emulsifier in bread, margarine and ice cream, can be made from either plant or animal fat — and the label rarely says which. The same uncertainty applies to several other additives.
This is where a human reader gets stuck and a database helps. PickEat checks each additive against what's known about its likely source and flags the ones that are animal-derived or uncertain, so you're not left guessing in the aisle over an E-number you can't decode.
Making a vegan shop effortless
Going vegan is a lot of label-reading at first, and that learning curve is where many people give up. A scanner flattens it: you don't need to memorise every animal-derived additive, because the app already knows them.
Scan as you shop, build a mental map of which brands and products pass, and the weekly trip gets faster every time. Certified vegan logos are the gold standard when they're present — and for everything else, PickEat fills the gap so 'is this actually vegan?' takes two seconds, not two minutes.
Hidden animal ingredients PickEat flags
- ✕Gelatine, whey, casein and lactose
- ✕Carmine / cochineal (E120) and shellac (E904)
- ✕Honey and beeswax (E901)
- ✕Mono- and diglycerides of unspecified origin (E471)
- ✕Certain omega-3 and vitamin D3 from animal sources
Vegan-friendly
- ✓Products carrying a certified vegan mark
- ✓Single-ingredient plant foods
- ✓Clearly labelled plant-based alternatives
How PickEat helps vegans
- 1Set your profile to vegan when you set up the app.
- 2Scan a product's barcode or photograph the ingredient list.
- 3PickEat flags any animal-derived or ambiguous ingredient — and names it — so you know exactly why something isn't vegan.
- 4Find vegan alternatives in a tap when a product doesn't pass.
Frequently asked questions
Can PickEat tell me if a product is vegan?+
Yes. PickEat scans the ingredient list for hidden animal-derived ingredients — gelatine, whey, carmine, shellac and ambiguous additives like E471 — and tells you whether a product is genuinely vegan.
Does it catch additives like carmine and shellac?+
Yes — it flags E120 (carmine), E904 (shellac), E901 (beeswax) and other animal-derived additives.
What about ambiguous additives like E471?+
PickEat flags E471 and other additives that can be plant- or animal-derived as uncertain, so you can choose a clearly vegan alternative rather than guess.
Does 'plant-based' on the label mean it's vegan?+
Not always. 'Plant-based' isn't strictly regulated and such products can still contain milk, egg or animal additives. PickEat checks the actual ingredients rather than the marketing.
Is the vegan scanner free?+
Yes, scanning is free on iOS and Android.
Sources & further reading
We check our content against guidance from recognised health and nutrition organisations.