7 Surprising Things Made Of Animal Products

You must be thinking of turning all vegan by turning to vegetarian food all of a sudden and avoiding animal products. But do you know that a lot of things that you use on a regular basis are made out of some animal ingredients. You cannot even imagine of animal products being used in some of the things that you use. Check out some of these surprising things and ask yourself if you are a vegetarian in the real sense of the term.

Soaps- Most of the soaps are made from some essential oils like coconut and almonds. But in olden days and even today, animal fat is being used in the soaps. Primarily referred to as 'tallow' either beef or pig fat is used for the purpose. These fats were combined with sodium hydroxide to make a soap foam. This is one of the most surprising things in our regular use that contain animal extracts.

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Toothpaste- Glycerine is found both in animal and vegetable fats. It is one of the primary ingredients in all toothpastes. The glycerine in the toothpaste that you are using may be made of vegetable or animal fat. But, there are some toothpastes in the market that claim to use no animal products.

Fabric Softener- Most of us use a fabric softener after washing the clothes. Do you know from where all the softness in your clothes come? Horse, sheep or cattle fat is used in them. The element used is known as Dihydrogenated tallow dimethyl ammonium chloride. So think twice before using it next time.

Cosmetic Products- From where do you think all the shine in products like lipstick and nail polish comes? This is another one of the surprising things that is made with animal scales. In most of them herring scales are used for the glittering effect.

Shampoos And Conditioner- There are more than a dozen chemicals in your shampoo or conditioner that might be named as animal ingredients. The panthenol, amino acids or vitamin B labels of shampoos and conditioner is a trick, as they might either be extracted from a plant or an animal source.

Sugar- Yes sugar itself is a vegan product, but the filters used to refine sugars are often made out of animal products. Purified ash of the animal bones is used as a filter to refine sugar by some companies. Go for sugars that have been declared as vegan by PETA or have unrefined sugar instead.

Plastic Bags- Most of the plastics contain slip agents that reduce friction in the material. Though polymers are made out of petroleum feedstock, some plastic companies use additives of animal origin to improve the quality of the plastic.

Watch out for all these products if you are a pure vegan. Most of them use animal products in their manufacturing process, and these things are really surprising.