this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2025
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Sugar?
Most table sugar is not vegan because it is refined with bone char, although the end product (white sugar) does not contain any animal product. The ethics of consuming this sugar is debatable among vegans and vegetarians, because the bone char is considered a byproduct of the meat industry rather than a primary driver of animal suffering, and you're not consuming the bones.
Some vegans feel strongly about avoiding any products created with animals , others are OK with sugar.
I mentioned it because it is a good example of something seemingly innocuous that many people aren't yet aware is made is animal products. Even the people who are aware of it don't necessarily agree on how strict we should be. Plenty of alternatives exist, but sugar pops up in a lot of unexpected foods that you might otherwise assume are vegan.
This is incorrect, a common "gotcha" from carnists.
Sugar as a product is mainly of two types: (sugar)cane sugar and beet sugar. Beet sugar doesn't use bones during refining. The US also has an USDA Organic label for cane sugar which should be bone free.
For Americans: https://ordinaryvegan.net/nutrition/vegansugar/ and https://www.peta.org/faq/are-animal-ingredients-included-in-white-sugar/
And, yes, there are plant-based alternatives for cow bones in that process.
There are also other sugars, perhaps more heavy on the fructose side, from other plants. Famously for the US: corn syrup.
It's not incorrect. Of course there are plant-based alternatives, but beet sugar is only like a third of white sugar, and activated charcoal sugar is an even smaller fraction.
Last I checked, cane sugar refined using bone char was a small minority of world sugar production. If you want to claim that "most" table sugar is not vegan, then you need to back that claim with some evidence. This is not a place to spread misinformation.
You're providing no references, no context, no phrasing. Whoever gave you an upvote must've been high on something.
Vegans are not okay with exploiting animals for the production of white sugar; by definition, vegans oppose the exploitation of animals.
Right, because every vegan is exactly the same.
Vegans may disagree about a great many things, but when it comes to the topic of whether exploiting non-human animals is acceptable, I think that all vegans by definition are in unanimous agreement that it is not. Veganism is binary in that sense, at least in principle.
TIL it is a good example, I had no idea.