Burgerville

Information gathered on Sep 21, 2009

Via phone with Burgerville customer service, and the online ingredient list.

The following are vegan:

Fried Items (may be fried in shared oil, ask at location before ordering):
French Fries, Sweet Potato Fries

Vegan Tidbits:
Apple Slices, Ketchup, Lettuce, Tomato, Pickles

The hamburger buns have both enzymes and mono and diglicerides of unknown origin (the company is going to get back to me on it).
The Spicy Anasazi Bean Burger Patty has honey in it.
The Oregon Harvest Burger Patty is vegan, though no word on how it is cooked (ask before ordering).

Oreos

Information gathered on Apr 13, 2009

Via phone with Kraft consumer relations.

The sugar in Oreo cookies is always cane sugar.

The ingredient "chocolate" contains no dairy.

Ritz Crackers

Information gathered on Apr 13, 2009

Via phone call to Kraft consumer relations.

The sugar used in Nabisco Ritz Crackers is always cane sugar.

The natural flavors are not animal derived.

Sara Lee Baked Goods

Information Gathered on Nov 19, 2008

Information gathered via phone, and only valid for their baked goods line of products.

All glycerides are not vegan.  That is to say that no products with glycerides in them are vegan.

All sugar used is beet sugar, never cane, and is thus vegan.

Chipotle

Information Gathered Apr 13, 2009

From the Chipotle Website FAQ.

I am a vegan. What can I eat?

You should avoid our pinto beans (they are cooked with a small amount of bacon), meats (duh, I know), cheese, sour cream, and chipotle-honey vinaigrette.

Additionally, I have been told by Chipotle managers that policy is to have one tortilla warmer (the one nearest the rice usually) be used exclusively for plain tortillas, while the other is for quesadillas, so as to prevent cross contamination.  You should make sure that your tortilla does not come out of the warmer used for the quesadillas.

Additionally, any frequent Chipotle visitor will notice that often the gloved hands come in contact with the meat, pinto beans, and cheese.  You should ask for your preparer to change their gloves before making your food.  Also, watch out for cheese, which has a propensity to fall into the guacamole.  Asking them to scoop yours from the far left corner of the container (from their point of view) will minimize this.

Taco Bell

Information gathered on Oct 23, 2008

This information was attained using the downloadable nutrition information from the Taco Bell website.  Where that form was unclear, extensive phone calls were made.  Despite this, I was unable to determine the source of the sugar in the products.  The following is a list of individual ingredients, not of menu items.  Thus while the nacho chips or potato bites are vegan, what they are normally topped with may not be.

The following ingredients are vegan - Beans, Hot Sauce, Green Chili/Tomatillo Sauce, Lettuce, Mild Sauce, Nacho Chips, Onions, Potato Bites, Red Sauce, Rice, Salsa, Taco Salad Shell, Taco Shell,  Tomatoes,Tostada

The following ingredients are vegan with the exception the sugar in them, which, as stated, may or may not be vegan – Citrus Salsa, Fire Sauce, Flour Tortilla, Guacamole, Pizza Sauce 

The following ingredients are not vegan (this is not a complete list, but only contains things which might be accidentally mistaken as vegan) - Chapula Shell, Chili, Cinnamon Twists, Creamy Sauces, Empanada, Flat Bread, Pizza Shell, Red Strips

Pillsbury

Information gathered on Nov 25, 2008

According to the representative over the phone (who asked their nutrition  expert and then called me back).

All glycerides used in their products are of vegetable origin.

The sugar used in their products may or may not be vegan.

"Enzymes" are not vegan.

The Original Flavor Crescent Rolls are vegan.

Though they were nice to me, they were unwilling to look up more than one or two products for me, so this is all the information I was able to get.  As I was asking only about their refrigerated bread products, I don't know for sure whether or not this information is applicable to their other product lines.

Introduction

This blog is meant to be a list of all information regarding what common commercial food products are vegan.  For purposes of this blog, vegan means that it is made entirely from non-animal sources throughout the process, so much as is possible. Specifically, this means that foods will not be labeled as vegan if they: have cane sugar processed through bone char; have trace animal ingredients like glycerides or vitamin D3; or are cooked in the same oil as animal derived products.

As a vegan myself, I know how hard it is to trust what other people report about food.  The fact that the internet is full of contradictory and/or outdated reports doesn't help the situation any.  I hope that despite this, you can trust me and the information I give because of the following.

• To quote The Simpsons, I am a level five vegan, I don't eat anything that casts a shadow."  Ok, that's a bit extreme, but I am serious about my veganism, and odds are very great that if you are concerned about something possibly being in your food, so am I.  If I do my job right, I will only ever consider things nonvegan that you might consider vegan, never the other way around.
• Unlike other lists on the internet like PETA's (which completely ignores the presence of trace ingredients) or others which are hopelessly outdated, I will check every ingredient I can and post the date that this was done on every post.
• I won't just post the item(s) I find to be vegan, but will post all the information I acquire, so you won't have to wonder if item X is nonvegan or if I didn't get to asking about it.

The information here was gathered via email where possible (or phone if no email address is available).  If gathered via email, the entire email conversation will be posted, if by phone then I will post a summary of the phone call(s).  As a general rule, if I post that an item is vegan (either a grocery product or menu item from a restaurant) then that is the result of being specifically told that item is vegan, and not a result of independently determining if all ingredients in an item are vegan.  If, on the other hand, I post information about an ingredient, that information pertains only to that ingredient, and does not imply that it is the only questionable ingredient is the product.  Exceptions to this will be made clear in posts as they occur.

There is a certain amount of trust that goes into gathering this information.  I am generally willing to accept a reply from a company when they specifically state that an item is vegan, unless I have other reason to doubt that it is.  In my correspondence, I will make judgment calls as to how informed the other person is, and if I doubt that they know what they are talking about, I will ask another person in the company instead.  I will do my best to ensure that the information here is accurate, but ultimately I am just a messenger, and must trust my source to be giving me correct information.

All information posted to this site pertains solely to the United States.

And now for the fun legal boilerplate.  While I will strive to ensure that the information on this site is current and correct, I can make no guarantees.  When in doubt, you are advised to contact the company yourself (and then submit your findings so I can update them on here).