"You are amazing, this has saved me so much time when grocery shopping!"
— Austin, a user who reached out with feedback
"It's been a great tool since starting my journey! You take a pic of the nutrition/ingredients, and it'll warn you of anything questionable or not vegan. 😁"
— Ashe, a Vegan For Beginners Facebook Group member
"Use a vegan app when you go shopping, I use WhatsVegan."
— Dóra, a Vegan For Beginners Facebook Group member
So, what is american beautyberry?
American beautyberry is a botanical ingredient derived from the fruit of Callicarpa americana, a deciduous shrub native to the southeastern United States. The plant produces dense clusters of bright purple berries that are gathered from wild or cultivated bushes. To prepare the ingredient for food use, the berries are typically washed, mashed, and boiled to extract their juice and natural pigments, which are then strained. It appears primarily in artisanal and regional food products, such as jellies, jams, syrups, sauces, and herbal tea blends.
This ingredient is vegan because it is entirely of plant origin. Cultivating, harvesting, and processing the berries involves only mechanical and thermal methods, such as simmering and filtering, with no animal tissues or animal-derived processing aids involved. Consequently, any food or beverage listing American beautyberry meets vegan standards.
We've built a vegan ingredients scanner that classifies food ingredients as "vegan", "non-vegan", or "potentially vegan".
It allows you to avoid non-vegan ingredients - just take a picture of a product's ingredient list, and the app tells you if the product is vegan or not.