Vegetarian with Trash Panda
Trash Panda is a food scanner app that reads the ingredient list for you. Scan a barcode at the grocery store and it flags every ingredient sourced from meat or fish, so you can rule a product out in seconds.
Meat and fish hide in foods that look vegetarian, from gummies to cheese to salad dressing. Here's how Trash Panda helps you catch them, plus our vegetarian product lists.
How Trash Panda helps you eat vegetarian
- Flags meat and fish in the ingredient list. Scan any barcode and Trash Panda marks ingredients sourced from animals, including ones that are easy to miss, like gelatin, animal rennet and fish sauce.
- Tailors your results. Set Vegetarian as an ingredient preference and Trash Panda customizes your scan results around it. Ingredient preferences come with a Trash Panda subscription.
- Rates the whole ingredient list. Every product gets a rating based on all of its ingredients, so you can see what else is in a meatless product, from food dyes and seed oils to added sugar.
- Explains every flag. Tap any ingredient to see why it's flagged and read the research behind it.
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Vegetarian product lists
Vegetarian foods our team picked for cleaner ingredient lists, from pantry staples to meat alternatives. Recipes change, so scan each product before you buy.
Vegetarian Picks
Good Choice picks with no meat or fish ingredients, from pantry staples to snacks and desserts.
View List (33)
Vegan Picks
Good Choice picks with no animal-derived ingredients, from pantry staples to snacks and desserts.
View List (25)Plant-based guides
Where meat and fish hide
Gelatin
Gelatin is made from animal skin and bones. It shows up in gummies, marshmallows, yogurt and frosted cereals. Trash Panda flags gelatin, pork gelatin and fish gelatin.
Cheese and animal rennet
Some cheese is made with animal rennet, an enzyme from calves' stomachs. Labels often just say "enzymes," so look for "microbial" or "vegetable" rennet, and scan to see what Trash Panda flags.
Fish, lard and carmine
Anchovies and fish sauce turn up in Caesar dressing, Worcestershire sauce and Asian sauces. Lard turns up in refried beans, tortillas and pie crusts. Trash Panda also flags carmine, a red dye made from insects.
What Trash Panda's food scanner checks for you
Tap on each icon to learn more
Avoid food dyes like Red 40, Red 3, Yellow 5, Blue 1, etc.
Scan food and spot seed oils like canola, soybean, sunflower and other refined oils.
Flag foods containing soy, dairy, gluten, and eggs.
Scan ingredients and spot ultra processed foods instantly.
Tap any ingredient to read the research behind every flag.
Bioengineered is another term for Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMOs.
Vegetarian FAQ
Cutting out dairy and eggs too? See vegan with Trash Panda, or every dietary restriction Trash Panda supports.
Product ingredients can change, so Trash Panda may not always be accurate. Always check the packaging before you buy.