It is not easy being a vegetarian, as there are a lot of great products out there which make use of animal derived ingredients. It makes it even harder when they contain list of ingredients of unclear nature like natural flavours/flavouring as they may come from animal source.

We just need to be more proactive in our shopping and eating out. There are a lot of businesses who have made vegetarian/vegan lifestyle a lot of easier by revealing their product ingredients.  For extra precaution, we may need to check with the companies when ingredients listed contain natural flavours and/or colours. They are not clear if they are from animal or vegetable origin. Please check with the companies respectively. Product labels usually list their free toll number and from personal experience, they are very helpful and some may email you the list of their products who are safe for vegetarians/vegans.

The
following is the list of codes of non vegetable source what many companies use.

120
Cochibneal - insect origin

161
Xanthophylls - may come from egg yolk

252
Sodium Nitrate - may come from animal origin

322
Lecithin - may come from animal origin, mostly from soy

422
Glycerine - may come from animal fat

441
Gelatine - may come from animal skin

471
Glycerides - from gycerine

472
Esters Glycerol - from glycerine

473
Sucrose Ester - from glycerine

474
S-Glycerides - may come from animal fat

475
Polyglycerol - may come from animal fat

477
Gycol Ester - may come from animal fat

491
Sorbital - may come from animal fat

492
Span 65 - may come from animal fat

542
Bone Phosphate - come from animal bones

570
Stearic Acid - may come from animal fat

572
Mg Stearate - may come from animal fat

627
Disodium - come from fish

631
Di- Inosinate - from fish

920
L-Cysteine - from animal hair/feathers

15118
Triacetin - from glycerine

1520
Pro- Glycol - from glycerine

Vit
D3 - definitely come from an animal origin

The
list above is not exhaustive, hence caution needs to be
taken when encountering numbers apart  from what is shown above. When
the numbers match the above, as indicated, they may not
necessarily mean they are of animal nature and hence further
queries need to be made to the concerned companies.

Please
do share what other numbers out there that we need to
be aware of that have not been listed.

If you need a card version for your wallet/purse, please email/contact me for a printable photo of the list from Suma Ching Hai's Association.