Weezl's phase 1- recipe testing and frugalisation- come one, come all!

weezl74 wrote: »

murrell, if you're still around!

vegan question: if planner 3 is true vegan, should I only look for veg society approved goods, I fear that might not be doable in budget...
NO - it costs companies money to get the vegetarian or vegan society approval and to show there symbol, so not all companies that sell veggie or vegan food have it. Generally companies put if its vegetarian, and then list if it contains eggs or milk. They can of course still contain honey, cochineal or vitamin D (D-2 (ergocalciferol) is derived from yeast, while D-3 (cholecalciferol) is derived from lanolin (from sheep) or fish.) and not all companies list which vitamin D they contain. The website animalfreeshopper.com is useful for looking up products, but only lists the companies that have submitted there vegan products to them.
I was thinking of planner 3 being mostly vegan, but I wonder if that's going to be perceived as a cop out!
I don't think its a cop out, due to your budget, it would be very difficult to get all nutrients required on £100. Flaxseeds and fortified soya milk and extra fruit and veg would put it over budget. You can always add extra info, to say this is mostly vegan and if you want it to be vegan, drop .......... and add in items such as fortified soya milk and flax seeds to grind.

example: tescos own version of ready brek contains calcium carbonate, but we don't know if this from animal sources.

If you are meaning asda rather than tesco as listed and its the asda ready oats, its listed as vegan in the vegan societys animal free shopper book and website, so is vegan.
however, this is also true of the calcium in bread flour, which is added by law but not listed as an ingredient.

Do you see my dilemma/confusion?!

I see your dilemma, most ready made bread is vegan such as hovis, its usually the added honey or milk, not calcium that makes bread not vegan. Calcium can be got from vegan sources (mining), which are cheaper and this is what manufacturers usally do, go for the cheapest source. Personally I think a lot of vegans wouldn't worry if it came with a few fragments of fossiled calcium anyway, we do what is practically possible.

On the vegetarian resource group website (american) it says "Most ingredients made with with calcium are vegan (i.e. calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, calcium sulfate). The exceptions are calcium caseinate and calcium stearate."