Company Product Information

Ingredients / Company Product Information

This page contains statements made by companies about whether the products they manufacture are vegan. There is of course no guarantee that these statements are accurate, since mistakes can occur. Companies also change ingredients of products, which can make the information inaccurate. If you notice that any of the information on this page is incorrect, please contact me.

Please note that the Company Product Information is provided as a resource for locating vegan products. Vegan Peace does not necessarily support these companies or their manufacturing practices.

Companies
The Coca-Cola Company	Domino Foods	Einstein Bros	Imperial Sugar Company	General Mills
New Balance	PepsiCo	Tropicana

The Coca-Cola Company

Statement made by: Laura, Industry and Consumer Affairs, The Coca-Cola Company
Date: May 27, 2008

"Except the products that contain cochineal (which is listed on the label) and the products that contain milk (which is also indicated on the label), brands of The Coca-Cola Company in the United States do not contain any ingredient derived from animals.

However, some of our juice products contain Vitamin D3, which is derived from lanolin. Lanolin is a natural oil in the fiber of sheep's wool. It is separated from the wool after the sheep's hair is cut (sheared). Lanolin oil is obtainable without harming the sheep, but may be an issue for strict vegetarians.

Additionally, some of our suppliers use a common industry practice for grape juice clarification that does involve animal by-products. This practice is becoming increasingly less common as ultra-filtration systems are gradually replacing the gelatin used in this process. However, you may be interested to know that because our juices are certified kosher, the gelatin used to clarify the juice is made from fish.

In the U.S., the only Coca-Cola brand product that is currently produced with cochineal is Minute Maid Juices To Go Ruby Red Grapefruit Drink.

The only currently manufactured Coca-Cola brand products that contain milk are Far Coast, Caribou Iced Coffee, FUZE Refresh, Godiva, and Minute Maid Fruit and Creme Swirls.

Regarding the processing of sugar used in our products, a product originating from cow bones is used by older sugar production facilities which refine cane sugar using more traditional methods. In most developed areas of the world where sucrose is used, such as in the U.S., sugar beets are almost always the source and cow bones are not used in this process, nor is it used in more modern sugar cane production facilities. It is highly unlikely that we would purchase the sucrose from small plants using traditional refinement methods given the size of our bottling system, and we do not in the U.S., but we could not entirely rule out this possibility everywhere in the world."

Domino Foods	Back to Top
Statement made by: Chrissy Barbee, Domino Foods Inc. Date: August 18, 2008
"This is in response to your recent inquiry regarding our current use of animal derived natural charcoal (aka “bone char”) in our cane sugar refining process, Natural charcoal has been used for over 175 years to manufacture sugar and over the past 10 years to filter and demineralize water. At American Sugar Refining, Inc. we utilize natural charcoal for the decolorization and deashing of sugar liquor via fixed bed adsorption at our Baltimore (MD), Chalmette (LA), and Crockett (CA) cane refineries. Natural charcoal is not used for decolorization at our Yonkers (NY) refinery. During the cane sugar refining process, heavy density (brix) sugar liquor passes across the natural charcoal bed and specific impurities (colorants and inorganic constituents) from the liquor are captured within the internal pores of the charcoal – the charcoal does not transfer impurities to the sugar solution. Hence, we consider natural charcoal to be a completely safe inert processing aide. In addition, this natural charcoal product is not soluble in either water or liquid sugar. Subsequent processing operations after decolorization include evaporation and further purification by crystallization and drying. The extremely high quality pure refined sugar products manufactured from our process do not contain any actual impurity from the natural charcoal. We also market a natural Demerara Washed Raw Sugar and a pure cane certified Organic Sugar which are crystallized from pressed/filtered cane juice and not filtered via natural charcoal. These natural sugar products are favored for their granular texture, and rich subtle molasses flavor."
Einstein Bros	Back to Top
Vegan Peace Note: Einstein Bros was asked about whether their products are vegan and specific information was requested about their ingredients "L, Cysteine" and "DATEM". You can find ingredient lists of their products on their website at this link.
Statement made by: Kim Knutsen, Director, Quality Systems, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. Date: November 18, 2008
"Einstein Noah restaurant group has a few items which contain DATEM (Di-Acetyl Tartaric (Acid) Ester of Monoglyceride). DATEM is used in the baking industry as a dough strengthener. DATEM is a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) by the FDA as specified in the Code of Federal Regulations (21CFR184.1101). DATEM can be found in our Potato Bagel, Power Bagel, Sun Dried Tomato Bagel, Challah Roll and Multigrain Bread. Einstein Noah Restaurant Group uses a variety of manufactures. All of our vendors have confirmed they are using a plant / vegetable base DATEM."
Statement made by: Renee DeHerrera, Customer Service Specialist, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. Date: September 25, 2008
"In regards to the L, Cysteine in our bagels - that type is a derived from Duck Feathers."
General Mills	Back to Top
Statement made by: Maerenn Ball, General Mills Date: March 31, 2009
"In answer to your questions, currently, the Vitamin D3, as Cholecalciferol, in our products is sourced from lanolin from sheep's wool. As for natural flavors, we recommend that consumers check with our consumer services department on a case by case basis to see if a product with natural flavors includes any ingredients from an animal source."
Imperial Sugar Company	Back to Top
Statement made by: Sonja Ainsworth, Consumer Customer Service Manager, Imperial Sugar Company Date: August 18, 2008
"All of our products have syrup that is filtered to remove color using bone char which is like activated carbon but made from cattle bones. It is not present in the products but all syrup used to make our products passes through these filters."
New Balance	Back to Top
Statement made by: Sarah, Consumer Response Team, New Balance Date: August 14, 2008
"All of the following models are made with synthetic materials. However, please note that we do use different types of glues depending on what is available. Some of our glues will contain animal products as many glues do. Although the shoe may be made of synthetic leather it does not mean it will be completely vegan. We do not mix real and synthetic leathers on any shoe. RUNNING: Men's: MR1350TO/SR, MR1223ST/SY, MR1062SB/CU, MR1011MC, MR1001SL/WS, MR902LW, MR893WN/BY, MR882CU, MR858ST/BK, MR826LW, MR817MC, MR768ST/NY/AW, M755CU/SR/SK, MR740WN/BK, MR710WN/RY/BR, MR670FC, MR645BK/GR/WN, M587NV, M498WND/GR, MT1110GT, MR921BK, MT908OR, MR873OR/BK, MT811NV/BK/AT, MT800GR/BO/GN/BG, MR790BR/BK, M708BY/GG, MT608GR/BK, MT570RB/BY/BO Women's: WR1350WB/GP, WR1223ST/SG, WR1062CU/EU, WR1011MC, WR1001WG/BL, WR902MS, WR893WB/CG, WR882CU, WR858ST, WR826LW, WR817MC, WR768ST/SG/AW, W755CU/SO/WB, WR740WB/SM/BK, WR710WB/SL, WR670FD/FB/FA, WR645WB/SL/GP, W587WB, W498WND, WT1110GT, WR921BL, WT908OR, WR873OR/SG, WT811PB/AT, WR790NR/BW/BR, W708PL/GG, WT608WB/GR/GB, WT570GP/ GG/BB CROSS TRAINERS: Men's: MX1340TR, MX1009WN, MX747WS/BS, Women's: WX1009BL, WX747WS/WB WALKING: Men's: MW844WN/BK, MW811WT/BK/BE/VW/VK/VB, MW793WK, MW659WN, Women's: WW844WB/BK, WW811WT/BK/BE/VW/VK/VB/SO, WW793WB, WW759WB/SP, WW744NB/FO, WW659WL TENNIS: Men's: CT1200WB, CT1003W/BK, CT822W, MC781WS, Women's: WCT1200W, WCT1003W/R, WCT822W"
PepsiCo	Back to Top
Statement made by: Allison Detillier, Consumer Relations Representative, PepsiCo Date: August 18, 2008
"There are no animal products or bi-products in our carbonated beverages or our juice drinks."
Tropicana	Back to Top
Statement made by: Jeff, Tropicana Consumer Relations Date: December 29, 2008
"We're happy to answer your question about the source of vitamin D3 used in Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice With Calcium and Vitamin D. The form of vitamin D added to Tropicana products is Vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is considered synthetic and the starting raw material is cholesterol which is derived from wool grease (lanolin). Although it is an animal product, under kosher law it is accepted as pareve - the animal is not sacrificed to harvest the product. The concentration of Vitamin D in our orange juice is about 15 parts per billion."
Statement made by: Cathy, Tropicana Consumer Response Date: May 28, 2008
"Tropicana juice products do not contain animal or animal by-products, with the exception of Tropicana Healthy Heart Orange Juice which contains Omega-3 derived from fish *(listed on front label), and a few juices which contain cochineal carmine coloring (listed in ingredients). The vitamins used to fortify Tropicana juices are synthetically sourced. Further, the type of calcium we use in our juices is FruitCal-- a unique combination of calcium hydroxide, malic acid, and citric acid. FruitCal does not contain animal products."