Yesterday, I accidentally ate non-vegan hummus.
Yesterday, I accidentally ingested dairy in the form of milk hidden in the ingredient list in organic “classic” -flavored hummus sent to me by Eat Well Enjoy Life, a company that wanted me to review various flavors from their line of hummus.
I specifically asked Eat Well Enjoy Life to send only vegan flavors, and so I didn’t even think to check the ingredients of what they sent me. It turns out, they make a lot of vegan flavors, and only a few are made with dairy. I was randomly scanning the ingredients this morning when I saw “contains milk” and my heart sunk. It turns out that in addition to all-vegan hummuses (which are amazing, and are made with really unique vegan ingredients like lentils, white beans, and black beans!), they also sell Greek-yogurt infused hummus. Bummer to the max.
The actually vegan flavors from Eat Well Enjoy Life. They are great.
The non-vegan flavors from Eat Well Enjoy Life. They are made with Greek Yogurt, which wasn’t so obvious from the packaging.
I haven’t accidentally eaten animal products (that I know of) in a long time, and each time it happens (it’s been only a few times during the 8+ years I’ve been vegan) it’s challenging for me on many levels. I figured I can’t be the only one who has gone through this, so I decided to share what I’ve learned from my recent experience.
Here are the 5 Things I learned From Accidentally Eating Animal Products:
1) Our world is not as vegan as I sometimes wish it were. Weird uses of dairy/eggs/etc. still exist in things one would suspect would be vegan, but you can’t be too careful and it’s always a good idea to double check when trying new products.
2) Companies may claim to understand what veganism is and seem enthusiastic about veganism, but that doesn’t mean they don’t make mistakes. I’ve even seen things labeled vegan that list whey, honey, dairy, and eggs in products’ ingredients. It’s always a good idea to check, educate, and have conversations to really ensure products being received or reviewed are vegan, especially as a food blogger who gets to interact with sales and marketing people on the reg. I think in this case, there was just a miscommunication between the person with whom I interacted and whomever sent out the samples for review. Eat Well Enjoy Life’s vegan hummus flavors are indeed delicious–creamy, spicy, white bean hummus and edamame hummus, and other bean formulations are indeed worthy of telling vegan bloggers about–it’s just a shame they accidentally sent non-vegan samples that I didn’t think to check as well.
3) It’s best to make your own hummus. No matter how great a store-bought hummus, nothing compares to homemade versions. Homemade hummus tastes way fresher and better, I’ve learned. I highly recommend any of the hummus recipes on Choosing Raw.
4) I am human, and sometimes humans forget to check product labels even when they know better. We live in a non-vegan world and this is just another reminder that we all need to do our best to keep educating and helping people understand why we choose to abstain from consuming animal products.
5) Good can come from bad. Today, in honor of my unfortunate accidental ingestion of dairy, I’m going to make a donation to an animal welfare-related cause. I’ve decided to give to Veganism is the Next Evolution (VINE). VINE is a wonderful sanctuary and I highly recommend checking them out. I realize it is a privilege to be able to donate, and my accidental ingestion of animal products is a great excuse for me to put extra attention into doing what I can. (Not that one needs to wait until they accidentally eat animal products to promote animal welfare causes!)
Thanks for reading! xo
I’d love to hear about others’ experiences dealing with this, if anyone has a story related or wants to share?
No disrespect intended, but isn’t the main point of (ethical) veganism the welfare of non-human animals? If so, why such a focus on the fact that an animal product accidentally was ingested? We all accidentally ingest plenty of insects every year, and saliva itself is an “animal” product. Nothing you (accidentally) did here contributed to any harm to any actual non-human, so it strikes me as a bit self-indulgent to be “going through” something simply because of a very understandable mistake.
Hi J.
This is something that I faced that I thought might have happened to others as well. I intended to shed light on what I was feeling, because I think there is a bit of a taboo in the vegan world to talk about what happens when we slip up. As an 8+ year vegan, even though a mistake like this is something I understand (see #4 of my list), it’s never easy. I have chosen to be vegan for many reasons, and having something like accidental ingestion of dairy which goes against my profound personal conviction, accidental it may be, is hard for me. I figured it must be hard for others, and my aim in writing this blog was to begin a discussion. Thanks for participating and I appreciate your weighing in.
I can understand this, Sarah. I found your blog (and just made a donation to VINE myself), because the guilt of eating something with dairy was killing me. Although my story’s a bit different and there was some obvious guilt involved. I was about to eat something that seemed vegan and is usually vegan but I had a sneaking suspicion that there might be a small amount of hidden dairy in it (as you mentioned this happens sometimes in otherwise vegan friendly options). Normally I check everything as being 100% vegan is very important to me but for some stupid reason this time I chose ignorance and ate it, and only after when my guilt overwhelmed me I checked the ingredients and there was, in fact, a small amount of whey protein in the product. WHY???!!! I don’t know why I did it, but anyways I did it. Thank you for your discussion on this matter and the recommendation to make a donation. It doesn’t assuage my guilt in the least but at least it gave me an excuse to give to a good cause and hopefully learn from this moment of stupidity.
Sarah, this is pattrice, from VINE. Thanks for the shout-out and the donation!
Can I add a 6th thing that can be learned from the so-called “Greek yogurt” bizarrely added into hummus? The “Greek yogurt” (put in quotes since actual Greek people have no idea what that might be) fad is the latest trick by the dairy industry to make up for declining demand for whole milk by doubling down on the milk and milk products in other items. As more people quit dairy, they figure out new ways to trick everybody else into ingesting even more milk. Stuffed-crust pizza! Three-cheese tortilla chips! Whey (a low-grade by-product) marketed as a high-quality body-building supplement!
If that fails, they’ll just export demand in the same way that the tobacco industry did as smoking declined here. And, of course, they’ll keep on using their political power to ensure that every public school in every district serves milk—even in low-income communities of color where the majority of school children are lactose-intolerant!
So… that reminds me to remember that persuading individuals to go vegan is only one aspect of what will need to be a much more multifaceted strategy. We at VINE invite you and your readers to join us in figuring out, and then implementing, a comprehensive strategy concerning dairy. Watch our blog in coming months and please do share your thoughts there.
And… thanks again for thinking of us!
Great points — thank you for sharing patrice. Will watch the blog and encourage readers to do so as well! xo
That makes sense. I guess my main point is this: If we are coming to this from an ethical standpoint, it is ALL about the animals, and not about us. My body isn’t a temple, I am one biological organism among billions of others. It seems to me that in some vegan circles, there is a disproportionate emphasis placed upon what is put in MY body, versus what good (or harm) my choices are actually making for the animals concerned. Let’s say one vegan (call her “Vegan 1”) frequently eats at some major taco chain but always gets a completely “veganized” version of some burrito, dines often at “vegan friendly” sausage and beer joints, and buys most of her vegan food at Trader Joe’s.
Vegan 2 only eats food from her local vegan restaurants and does the bulk of her shopping at a Vegan grocery store, avoiding Trader Joe’s whenever possible on the grounds that the sell meat and are thus, part of the meat industry. However, unknown to Vegan 2, a Thai “vegan” place she eats at uses fish oil and she has ingested her fair share over the course of a year. We can even imagine that one time in the last year, in a time of depression and weakness, Vegan 2 ate a pint of dairy ice cream.
My view is that Vegan 2 should not feel bad at all. He actions were generally consistent and true to her beliefs, even though she “failed” at the strict definition of “vegan,” many times by “accident,” once due to weakness of the will.
Note that Vegan 1 HAS satisfied the definition; she’s the “true” vegan of the two. Yet Vegan 1 supports the meat industry consistently, knowingly and directly, by giving a high percentage of her money to business that profit off of it. My two cents is that the choices of Vegan 2 are most beneficial and true to the cause of eliminating the suffering of non-human animals. She is the better vegan of the two.
Sorry for the tangent!
An interesting topic, Sarah. Your article really made me think. I believe it’s important that we hold ourselves accountable for what we consume, but at the end of the day we are only human and we need to keep moving forward and learning from these experiences. I think j raises an interesting point regarding our reactions to eating animal products. I agree that we can sometimes be a little anthropocentric in our responses, but then again, it is a personal experience for everyone and there shouldn’t be a “correct” or “acceptable” way of reacting to unintended ingestion of animal products. I recently ate gelatine by accident and while I was disappointed in myself for not being vigilant enough, I felt that the best way for me to move on was actually to not dwell on it. I know that it will certainly happen again, so all I can do is try my hardest. Thanks for posting and sharing your experience! 🙂
Great points, thanks for sharing Lisa! I agree with what you say in terms of being compassionate to ourselves as human beings.
J- you are missing THE point. Dairy is extremely deadly to cows. First, a cow is force impregnated, then her baby is stolen from her so that her baby’s milk can also be stolen from her. Then the calf is killed for veal, maybe 10 percent survive and become another dairy cow. So yes ingesting dairy is harmful. Its not about trying to be perfrectly healthy, it is ethical.
Oh my goodness, thank you for this! I had a really similar experience. A few months ago, I bought hummus from my local co-op, never in a million years suspecting that HUMMUS would have animal products. After getting half-way through a big serving, I felt like it tasted really different, and turns out it had FETA CHEESE in it! Ugh, I felt so sick, so guilty, so icky. I love your idea of donating money. Definitely a reminder to check labels!
Yes! Thank you for sharing your experience Raechel!
thanks for sharing sarah… i know exactly how you feel – disappointment with the product, disappointment with ourselves for ‘letting our guard down’ and assuming that something made from certain products must be vegan – who puts egg, or milk in hummus – to me and many others (vegan and carnist) that’s not real hummus…
i don’t consider what you’ve said to be dwelling on the matter, but sharing with others the need to be vigilant when purchasing…
yes!
I love you and your vegan heart! And you make the BEST VEGAN HUMMUS EVER.
I love you and YOUR vegan heart babe!! Thank you 🙂
I’ve been vegan for 6 years now. A few years ago I ordered what I thought was a vegan pizza, and ate it in the dark (OK, that sounds much sadder than it actually was). About a half slice in I discovered that what I thought was really thin tomatoes was pepperoni or salami or whatever. I was HORRIFIED. OMG. What should I do?!?!? I considered purging so I wouldn’t have that in me. But then I realized that at least part of my reaction was about staying “perfect” and “perfectly vegan”… and there’s really no way to do that.
So, I don’t eat in dim light anymore, am more conscious about everything I eat, read labels even more carefully, and know that veganism is a lifetime thing and nothing and no one is ever perfect. I do the very best I can … every day. That’s all I can do … all anyone can do.
Can I just say I love how the Greek yogurt flavors are the ones labeled “better for you”?
Good point so redic
Thanks for your thoughtful, heartfelt, and honest post Sarah. As a long time ethical vegan, I can’t imagine that all of us haven’t been through this, one time or another. It does and can happen, and it’s good to address it. I think at the end of the day, I love what Colleen Patrick Goudreau says; living life as an ethical vegan isn’t about being “100% vegan certified”. She doesn’t mean that we don’t strive to be true to our values for the animals every day, (in all the ways already discussed), she just must means that as humans, (and ethical vegans), we need to live our lives and make our daily choices as consciously and humanely as possible. It’s hard to live in this world and not on some level be supporting values we don’t agree with, I.e., natural food stores that sell meat, among other things. I think we just have to strive to do the best we can, every day and support one another in the process.
Yogurt in hummus??? Yuck! This happens to me sometimes too, and I find it doubly aggravating as I am highly allergic to milk. Sometimes I don’t realize I’ve ingested dairy until a few hours later when I break out in a rash, or a week later when my acne flares.
But we are all doing the best we can and I think it’s important to remember that none of us are perfect in this. I think it’s really nice that you’re turning this into a positive by making a donation. I’ll have to try that the next time I have one of these little accidents.
Sarah, We are also making a donation to Vine Sanctuary to honor you & your writing.
Wow, that’s so awesome!! 🙂 Thank you for doing this and for sharing
I agree with J.
Thanks for a great post – it can be easy to fall into the trap of getting despondent when you realise that you’ve made a mistake! It’s really important that when we do make mistakes, that we learn from them and carry on, trying to do the best we can. Veganism is about doing our best to eliminate non-human animal suffering from our lives, not perfectionism.
I worry about someone who feels they need to make a donation to “make up for” accidentally ingesting something they got for free. I can understand it, having been a vegetarian for 22 years (most of my life) but it still worries me. You didn’t do anything wrong. Not one of us is perfect, and eating “perfectly” is not possible. What matters more is that we go out and do the best we can to make the world a better place for both humans and animals. Shaming should not be a part of eating (or life), and for it to make you feel that guilty seems unhealthy. I wish you all the best, but I hope you will be able to be more gentle with yourself. Your diet can’t make up for all the ills of the world, no matter how hard you try.
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I’ve been vegan for about 7.5 years, I’ve accidentally eaten things meat usually being the one that ruins my day or week, I usually end up crying and throwing up, but I also never ate meat throughout my whole life so thats rough for me. Dairy doesn’t bother me since I ate cheese for 20 years. However today I accidentally ate egg, and I feel so disgusting, I’ve been eating really clean and awesomely lately and I just feel like that brought me down, does anyone have any suggestions to detox this out of my body ASAP?! thanks
I’m so glad I found this. I just learned I’ve been inadvertently consuming dairy for the last several months, because of this chocolate latte syrup we use at my work that I was completely certain was vegan, but in fact contains condensed milk. I’ve been vegan for almost five years, and I’ve made mistakes before, but never so many in such a short amount of time. I feel horrible about it, because my vegan lifestyle is something that is of the utmost importance to me, and I feel like the worst person in the world.
Aw, I hope you can find some compassion for yourself! These things happen. I felt a lot better when I realized that perfection doesn’t help anyone, and as soon as we figure out a situation like this we can just accept it and ourselves and continue to try our best to live compassionately.
Veganism is not about purity. It is a state of mind, a way of life. It is very easy in western society to become obsessed with perfection. The truth is we can never have complete control over the world around us. We can however, do everything in our power to stop it by speaking up against animal abuse and consciously making cruelty free decisions. We have to remember, that other humans make mistakes and that this isn’t a veggie friendly world. We have to be grateful for the privilige of living as imdividuals who are not widely oppressed. The importance is compassion, not purity.
Ahh how awful! I just went to an Indian restaurant and only realised afterwards that the daal lentils I had enjoyed contained a large amount of Ghee (clarified butter). I am feeling so crappy about it and sought comfort in google, which led me to your page. Glad im not the only one who struggles with this stuff!
Today I accidentally had non-vegan animal crackers. I know the generic ones are vegan, but these ones simply were not. I have been beside myself trying to find a way to make up for what I’ve done. When I happened upon this article I felt relieved to not be the only one whose made such a mistake and will certainly consider donating to VINE. In the meantime though, I am going a week as a raw vegan and hope that will clear my conscience. Thanks for sharing your story!
Just enjoyed my vegan hummus wrap from the local deli (thrilled that I can participate in our workplace lunch and still eat lovely food of my choosing!) and then…realized the wrap included CHEESE slices! Huh? I didn’t ask for this addition. I had eaten about four bites before deciding to check why this was tasting different. I unwrapped the situation, removed the slabs, and continued eating. (Yeah, the whole “non vegan food touched my vegan food” concern is for another thread…) I think back years ago when I’d just “eat it” because accidents happen, but feel empowered now to NOT eat anything I don’t feel comfortable eating. Thanks for this post/the comments, everyone — I too found on a “guilty Google.” 🙂
Thank you for this. I’ve been vegan for almost 7 years, and sometimes I make mistakes and find out that something I’ve eat may not have been vegan, but I have to forgive myself for making those mistakes.
*eaten
aww, that’s great to hear. thanks for sharing.
I’ve just accidentally purchased a cotton and linen blouse with mother-of-pearl buttons. It just did not dawn on me that m.o.p is an animal product at the time, although subsequently when I realised that it is in fact animal and not mineral I felt awful.
The only thing to do is, as the song says, “pick yourself up, dust yourself down, start all over again”, but with the proviso of being extra vigilant in future, as others have said. Just learn the lesson and move on, don’t beat yourself up.
The other thing I struggle with is medicines – so many of them contain animal products and have been tested on animals. What to do if you really need them, as I did recently when I was ill with severe abdominal pain. Any answers?
Totally unlike me, and rather dangerous, but as you say we all make mistakes. Today I ate something that I later found out had egg, refined sugar, and soy. However, I only felt guilty after realizing it had egg in it. The other two cause some really bad health problems, yet so does the egg, so I was just worrying. Your post made me realize that we all make mistakes and not too feel so horrible about it. Tomorrow is a new day, and next time just be sure to ask at restaurants and check labels. Thanks so much! I really liked reading this.
Also, sorry about any typos!
I’m so glad to have found this article. Accidentally consuming animal products has the same effect on me- a total heart-sinking, sick to my stomach feeling. I’ve read through some of the replies and veganism to me is all about choosing carefully to not consume or use any products that exploit animals in any way. It’s a guilty feeling for me in terms of not being as careful as I should have. I am always so conscious of the food choices I make and when I fail to notice an animal product, I just feel like I made a mistake, you know? It is all about animal welfare and constantly making a conscious effort is what matters, but times when this happens just makes me think that I can never be too careful… I wish for the world to go towards veganism.
I just ate something with milk in it by accident, and I’m FREAKING OUT inside.
So glad that I found this blog. I just ate a ‘black bean burger’ come to find out it has eggs, AND milk inside. Needless to say I’ll be giving the whole box (which still has 11 frozen burgers inside) to one of the ladies I work with who isn’t vegan. I just started this journey and I feel horrible to be messing up so quickly. I’ll definitely be more diligent on checking labels from now on.
Thankyou for posting this. I have been vegan for 8 months now and was vegetarian for 3 years. I barely eat outside of my home so when I went to an open day today I made the dumb assumption this potato stall cooked the potatoes in the same oil. I look over (from the other side after eating it) and they were cooking it in some definite milk substance batter and I was guttered but didn’t want to show it infront of a friend till I got home and I’ve been feeling mentally and physically sick all night. Trying to tell myself to learn from this and that everyone makes mistakes but still that feeling of knowing I was an idiot to not even think to ask!!! I’m so used to eating at home and I’m only to blame.
I can only learn I guess but this is definetkey gonna affect me eating outside of home. It already has
It’s a hard world to be a vegan sometimes but I’m not every giving up