"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 fd c red 40?
FD&C Red 40, also known as Allura Red AC or E129, is a synthetic azo dye widely used to impart a red color to foods, drinks, and cosmetics. It is manufactured industrially through chemical synthesis using petroleum distillates or coal tar byproducts. This color additive commonly appears on the ingredient lists of candies, carbonated soft drinks, sports beverages, baked goods, breakfast cereals, sauces, and packaged snack foods.
FD&C Red 40 is vegan because it is derived entirely from non-animal synthetic and mineral sources. The raw materials used in its commercial production are synthetic aromatic hydrocarbons, and no animal tissues, animal byproducts, or animal-derived processing aids are utilized during manufacturing. Because the finished dye contains no animal inputs, it meets the standard criteria for vegan food products.
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.