How do vegans know if products contain trace amounts of animal products?

Yes, I read the label. But no one is perfect. There are a lot of *code words* for meat. I didn't know for a long time that mono&diglycerides were made of animal meat... once I found out, I removed them from my diet and moved on with my life. You can find this info in places like Peta's website.

I have also been in situations where foods that were vegan, ended up adding whey etc.. I didn't know how many times I ate them before I re-read the label.

We can't worry about the things we didn't know. The important thing is to fix it when you do know.

"There is no shame in admitting you were wrong; you are only saying you are wiser today than you were yesterday."

Actually most bread doesn't have milk,at least not whole grain.I would get kinda pissed for eating something with an animal product,like this one time I bought these drinks,and they had vitamin d3 in it,which is derived from an animal.I didn't drink em,but it kinda sucked that I wasted my money on them.If I ate meat by accident I would definetly barf,I would feel so sick.Jell-o,no,ice cream,only soy or rice ice cream,yogurt,only if it is soy yougrt.

I'm vegan and, no I cannot tell if there are trace amounts of aminal products in my food, or even larger amounts if they do not present a large amount of flavour; enough flavour for me to taste.

Yeah, I don't think people are understanding the question. Reading the ingredients on a package is almost meaningless. The rules and regulations regarding food ingredients are designed for the manufacturers; that is, to make it very easy on them. The regulations are only there to make certain that no one in the public get's killed, poisoned, etc. Long term effects of ingredients; who cares.

The ingredients on a package are only the base ingredients. These days, there are ingredients within ingredients, within ingredients. Let's say you read: "flour, water, honey, salt, yeast." OK, what kind of flour? What's in the flour? What kind of water? Distilled, tap water, mineral water, filtered water, and to what purity level? Honey? What kind of honey? Where did it come from? Is there sugar added (most honey does have white sugar added and no it need not be listed)? What kind of sugar? Was there animal products in the processing of the white sugar or white salt? You'll find that things such as animal blood are used in the process.

Most food ingredients I wouldn't even consider edible. Such as ironoxide. Rust. It's used all the time as a food ingredient, and that's not even the worst on the list, that's near the bottom.

Not all ingredients need to be listed on a package if they are under a certain amount. The regulations are very long and complex and as I said, designed to give the manufacture as much free range as possible.

Vegans dont eat animal products so of course they dont eat ice cream. yogurt or jello. The vegans I know stick to whole foods.

Smart people of any persuasion read the labels of their food before they eat it.

What do you care about anyone elses' eating habits, anyway?

Why is all this Vegan bashing going on?

Good luck.

Well, to answer the original question, I don't eat packaged products and find out there's animal ingredients in them later - I read the label. If I'm eating out and find I just ate animal products, though, sucks for me, but what can I do?

And to all the people who answered above - you're right. I'm an insane idiot because I don't eat the same things as you. God forbid I don't eat meat or dairy or eggs. I could drop dead of a protein and iron and calcium deficiency any second now! Also, I'm sorry for all the anguish my diet has caused you. It's really my fault that you assume I'm trying to convert you just because of the way I eat. I'll try to go out and eat some meat and dairy right away. It's probably for the best, especially considering every second of my waking life I'm fantasizing about a rare steak.

ever heard of READING THE LABEL?

And if are eating out, ask what is in it. The people cant lie to you, u can totally sue them for that.

(Thanks loisepenn for calling vegans completely loony pasty faced weirdos. Not that I or any of them would care, we are getting used to it. And guess what, we laugh about it and will still be laughing when you have already died of a stroke).

Concerning your question, no vegans are not completely retarded and can sort out easily which products contain anything deriving from animals given they can read, which most of us are indeed capable of.

My friend is vegan and she reads the ingerdiants on the box or lable

i have no idea, it doesn't seem very fun. every vegan i've ever met has been a completely loony pasty faced weirdo. i'm sure some of them aren't like that but if there are i've never seen them. vegetarians who cut out meat & fish - fine, that seems reasonable. cutting out milk and eggs gets pretty weird - i mean why? but when they start cutting out all animal products, wearing hemp shoes, and scrutinizing labels for things like whey, lanolin and gelatin sadly they are now complete nutters imo.