Who says that vegetarians and vegans miss out!! With the range of completely animal-free products available these days, and with more coming on the market all the time, it's never been an easier time to be veggo!

In this list below we have endeavoured to include great products that are readily available in Victoria. Please help us keep the page up to date. If you know of any other suitable products, or any changes to the details below, please email us at webmaster@vnv.org.au.

Before you use this page we recommend that you read the fine print below.

And don't forget to also check out our Other Suitable Foods, Non-Leather Shoes, Gifts etc. and Great Places to Shop pages...

Great Vegetarian & Vegan Food Products
Product List:
       Biscuits
       Breakfast Cereals
       Cheese:
           - Vegan Cheese
           - Vegan Cream Cheese
           - Soy Cheese
           - Dairy-Based Rennet-Free Cheese
       Chocolate
       Confectionery & Marshmallows
       Cream, Vegan
       Cream, Sour, Vegan
       Cream Cheese, Vegan
       Desserts & Puddings
       Donuts, Muffins & Sticky Buns, Vegan
       Egg Replacers
       Gravy
       Honey Alternatives
       Ice Cream
       Jelly
       Kosher Products
       Lollies
       Margarine (Dairy-Free)
       Marshmallows
       Mayonnaise
       Meat Alternatives
       Pastry
       Pâté & Pesto
       Ready To Eat Meals
       Savouries
       Snacks & Snack Bars
       Sour Cream, Vegan
       Soymilk & Other Non-Dairy Milk Alternatives
       Stock
       Sweets
       Yogurt
       Other Products

The Fine Print:
- Getting correct and up to date information on products has proved to be very difficult. The
  information provided on this page is accurate and correct to the best of our knowledge and
  should be used as a guide only. No responsibility or liability will be taken for information that is
  subsequently found to be incorrect. As manufacturers can vary the ingredients in their products
  from time to time, if you wish to ensure that a product is definitely suitable for vegetarians or
  vegans, you will need to contact them directly for confirmation.
- Some of the products that we list as being suitable for vegans may contain traces of egg or
  dairy products. We consider that these products are suitable for vegans as they do not contain
  egg or dairy products as ingredients, they may contain it due to cross contamination in the
  manufacturing facility only. Therefore, some of the products we list as being vegan are not
  suitable for people with acute dairy or egg allergies, or for very strict vegans. Please check
  product labels.
A word about sugar...
- Refined sugar is avoided by some vegetarians/vegans because a filter bed composed of animal
  bone  char may be used in the refining process. The bone char is prepared by incinerating
  animal bones at an extremely high temperature. This results in a physical change in the bones'
  composition, leaving particles of pure carbon scattered throughout the porous calcium
  orthophosphate structure. The carbon particles remove colourant molecules from the sugar (by
  a physical process called "adsorption") and thereby whiten it. No bone char remains within the
  finished sugar product and it is therefore kosher suitable.
- While bone char filters are still used by some major sugar companies around the world, it is our
  understanding that they are no longer used in Australia. There are currently three sugar refineries
  in Australia and they have stated:
    Sugar Australia Pty Ltd  (details correct as at March 2007)
       "Sugar Australia refines sugar in Melbourne and Mackay and markets the CSR brand of
       sugar. Both its refineries DO NOT USE bone char. Instead, the decolourising process uses
       granular activated carbon (made from coal). The use of bone charcoal in Sugar Australia
       (formerly CSR) refineries ceased in Australia about 1990. There are refineries in America that
       still use it, but not in Australia. The Sugar Australia refineries do not use any materials of
       animal origin in the refining process, so its products are suitable for a vegan diet."
   Bundaberg Sugar Ltd  (details correct as at March 2007)
       "Bundaberg Sugar has not used bone char in the refining process for many years now."
   Manildra Harwood Sugars
       (Manildra Harwood Sugars have not responded to our enquiries.)
- Please note that some of the imported products that we include in our Great Vegetarian and
  Vegan Products list as being suitable for vegetarians and vegans may contain sugar that has
  been refined using an animal bone char filter.
For more information about bone char filtration in sugar refining, please refer to the following sites:
     - Sugar and other sweeteners: Do they contain animal products?
     - Is Sugar Vegan?
     - Animal Bones
     - The Great Sugar Debate: Is it vegan?
A word about Tofutti products...
The following Q&A has been taken from the Tofutti website:
     Q  Does Tofutti use sugar that has been refined with animal bone char?
     A  Most of our frozen dessert products use cane sugar. We assume that the sugar is refined
         with animal bone char since this is a fairly common procedure in the sugar refining industry.
         Please keep in mind that all sugar refining in this country is done by a handful of companies,
         who establish their own procedures for refining sugar. It is our understanding that if this
         process is used in bleaching the sugar, the bone char is actually extracted at the end of the
         procedure and no bone char remains within the finished sugar product. Our products are
         certified kosher parve, which means no animal parts could remain in the sugar. Also, I would
         like to bring to your attention that not all of our products use cane sugar. We also use corn
         syrup sweeteners and NutraSweet.