For those of you as vegans, of course you have to be careful in consuming food so that there is no food from animal products or their derivatives, including Soy Sauce. Is Soy Sauce Vegan? Maybe this is a question that is often heard and many find out about it on the internet. If you are one of them, then you are right here, we will provide answers to questions about Soy Sauce, is it vegan or non-vegan.
Is Soy Sauce Vegan?
At first glance the answer is that this is still debatable, you have to be careful with it because there are gaps in the names of the ingredients used. There is a gap for the entry of material from animal sources.
One of the tricky things to determine Is Soy Sauce Vegan or Not is about the fermentation. Soy sauce is food or seasoning that goes through a fermentation process, what is used in the process, whether using an ingredient derived from animals or not.
See too: Is Gatorade Vegan? Let’s See
Well, during the fermentation process, there are some products that are considered gray (can be from animals or not). However, if you want safe and fermented soy sauce, there are also non-fermented soy sauce products. Maybe it’s safer like the gluten-free Tamari soy sauce.
If you skip the fermentation process, it means you are using unfermented soy sauce. This means no more hidden animal products in the ingredients of Soy Sauce. So, this versatile condiment can make a great vegan soy sauce for vegans. Let’s just look at the ingredients used in making Soy Sauce.
Soy Sauce Ingredients
To be clearer to us, Is Soy Sauce Vegan, know what ingredients are used in soy sauce. Here we use the Kikkoman soy sauce ingredients label as a reference for us. This product contains ingredients such as:
- Water
- Wheat
- Soybeans
- Salt
- Sodium Benzoate (less than 1/10% of 1% as a preservative)
Well, from the ingredients we can see that everything is safe and great. Even though some soy sauce uses fish products in the ingredients. We know this from the label on the bottle. However, it is tricky to determine whether soy sauce is vegan! This lies in sorting out brewing methods and may involve fish oil here.
In soybean fermentation generally lactic acid is used and this usually comes from plants such as beets. But not all lactic acid from plants, sometimes also comes from animal products.
What’s The Problem?
Shiso and Kikkoman, these are two soy sauce companies and they say that lactic acid is very important in making soy sauce especially during the brewing process. However, it is not clear whether it is from vegetable or animal origin.
It’s also important to mention that Kikkoman has a history of testing animal products. However, later they said that animal testing had been discontinued a long time ago. However, from their website, until now they have not mentioned any trials of products from animal ingredients.
So, is soy sauce vegan? The answer should be placed on the company that produces it. Different companies will of course use different recipes. So, there is only one way to know whether soy sauce is vegan or not. This is by asking the company directly. Are their products vegan or not?
Vegan Soy Sauce Recipe
Making your own vegan soy sauce isn’t as complicated as you think. Don’t dwell on the lengthy debate over soy sauce, whether it’s vegan or not, because it’s going to be confusing. It’s better if we make our own soy sauce which is 100% vegan. Here’s the recipe!
Ingredients for Vegan Soy Sauce:
- 2 vegetable bouillon cubes
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- Dash black pepper
- 1⁄2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1⁄4 teaspoon garlic powder(optional)
- Salt to taste
- 1 cup water
How to Make It:
- Stir the ingredients until evenly distributed and bring to a boil
- Reduce heat and simmer until desired consistency. The longer it simmers, the thicker the sauce will be.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool, store in a clean jar and refrigerate for future use.
Explore Your Options
Apart from soy sauce, there are other forms of soy sauce, such as coconut aminos. Coconut soy sauce is also versatile even if it sounds a bit unique. Even a coconut company makes teriyaki sauce out of coconut. Besides coconut soy sauce, you can also have another versatile seasoning, this is BRAGG’s organic.
Do you prefer to use vegan soy sauce or prefer to make your own vegan soy sauce from home? Or you prefer to use the best substitute for soy sauce, namely coconut aminos which is definitely 100% vegan. Please give it a try, sometimes this can be one of the best choices for you in the vegan lifestyle.
[Lets see the source here.]
