Is vitamin b12 vegan?
Vitamin b12 is potentially vegan - it can be derived from plants or animals. You should ask the manufacturer for more details.
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"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 vitamin b12?
Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is a water-soluble micronutrient added to fortified foods and dietary supplements. It appears frequently on the ingredient lists of plant-based milks, breakfast cereals, meat alternatives, nutritional yeast, and multivitamin formulations.
The compound is produced commercially through the industrial fermentation of bacteria, which provides a non-animal, plant-friendly source. However, vitamin B12 also occurs naturally in animal tissues, including meat, organ meats, fish, eggs, and dairy, from which it can be extracted. Additionally, some commercial vitamin preparations utilize animal-derived carriers, such as gelatin, during processing to stabilize the nutrient.
Because ingredient statements rarely clarify whether the vitamin was derived from microbial cultures or animal sources, vitamin B12 is classified as possibly vegan. A third-party vegan certification on the packaging or direct confirmation from the manufacturer can confirm whether the ingredient comes from an animal-free source.
How to quickly find the source of ingredients like vitamin b12?
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.
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