What isn’t vegan? Wine, beer and hidden animal ingredients

The objection

“Come on, now you’re telling me a glass of wine isn’t vegan? This is getting ridiculous.”

The answer

It does sound absurd, since grapes, barley and hops are all plants. The animal products are used to clear the drink, and a UK label often needn’t mention them, so the question catches people out.

Why aren’t all wines and beers vegan?

Many are fined with animal proteins, which are added to bind the compounds that would cloud the drink or make it astringent and then sink with them. In wine these include gelatine from pigs and cattle, fish gelatine, isinglass (a very pure gelatine made from fish air bladders or, more recently, other fish tissues), milk casein and egg white, and a 2022 review of fining agents notes that pig gelatine remained the most commonly used after some cattle proteins were dropped because of BSE [1]. In UK brewing, isinglass made from fish swim bladders is added to casks of ale before they leave the brewery, where it draws yeast and protein to the bottom, according to a 2016 report from Cask Marque, a cask-ale industry body [3]. Beer meant for kegs, bottles and cans is often pasteurised or filtered without isinglass, though some craft beers add lactose or honey for flavour, the vegan charity Viva! notes [4].

Fining agents are meant to come out again. The 2022 review calls them processing aids that should not be present in the finished wine, though it notes that some can stay bound to the wine’s tannins [1]. In a 2011 study of wines made for the research, the lab tests used could not detect the casein, egg white or isinglass added to fine them, yet in skin-prick tests 91% of the 11 milk-allergic patients, four of the six fish-allergic ones and one of the seven egg-allergic ones reacted to at least one matching wine. The authors concluded that the finings remain in traces, at a very low risk to allergic drinkers [2]. Either way the drink isn’t vegan, because an animal product was bought and used to make it, and the same review notes that animal fining proteins can raise ethical and religious concerns, veganism among them [1].

Why doesn’t the label say so?

Because UK law often doesn’t require it. A drink with more than 1.2% alcohol needn’t list its ingredients [6]. It must still flag any of the 14 allergens listed in the 2011 EU food-labelling regulation, which the UK kept after Brexit, if one was used as a processing aid and is still present in the finished drink [5][7], and with no ingredients list that means the word “contains” followed by the allergen [8]. Milk and egg are on the list, so a wine still holding casein or egg white has to say “contains milk” or “contains egg”. Fish is too, but the list exempts “fish gelatine or Isinglass used as fining agent in beer and wine”, and gelatine from pigs or cattle isn’t on it at all [7].

Which other foods hide animal ingredients?

Several ingredients come from animals without their names making it obvious: milk derivatives, gelatine, and a few additives and vitamins made from insects or sheep’s wool.

• Whey, casein and lactose all come from milk. The same regulation names “milk and products thereof (including lactose)” as an allergen [7], and an allergen in a UK or EU ingredients list has to refer to that name and be set in type that stands out from the rest [8], so these turn up beside a highlighted “milk”.
• Gelatine is defined in EU food hygiene law, also kept in the UK, as protein from the collagen in animal bones, hides, skins, tendons and sinews [9], and a 2026 study of gelatine-free marshmallows calls it the main protein used to make them [10].
• Carmine (E120), a red colouring [14], is made from female insects of the species Dactylopius coccus, the cochineal, and is an approved food additive in the EU, according to the European Food Safety Authority (2022) [11]. In the US, labels have to name it as “cochineal extract” or “carmine” [12].
• Shellac (E904) is a resin secreted by the lac insect, and EU rules allow it as a glaze on citrus fruit, apples and pears, chocolate, sweets, chewing gum and coffee beans (European Food Safety Authority, 2024) [13].
• Beeswax (E901) is made by worker honeybees [14], so it raises the same objection as honey.
• Vitamin D3 in many supplements comes from lanolin in sheep’s wool, while D2 and lichen-derived D3 are vegan, the Vegan Society says [15], so the form on any vitamin D supplement is worth checking.

How do you find vegan wine and beer?

Check the label, or look the drink up on Barnivore. Many large UK retailers now mark which of their own-brand wines are vegan, the vegan charity Viva! notes [4], and Barnivore, a vegan guide to beer, wine and spirits, held entries for 65,566 products in October 2026, based on replies from the companies that make them [16]. Animal-free finings exist too: a 2022 review lists pea, lentil, soy and wheat proteins and yeast extracts as alternatives that can be used to fine wine [1], and some brewers clear their beer with silica and Irish moss, a seaweed, or leave it unfined and slightly cloudy [3].