Last Updated on November 9, 2023 by Fasting Planet
Are Eggs Vegan?
Eggs are a versatile food, as they can be consumed for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. You can eat them on their own or make them into omelets, pancakes, cakes, cookies, quiches, brownies, casseroles, frittatas; the list goes on and on. As a vegan, you don’t eat fish, poultry, or beef, but are eggs off-limits too?
Eggs are not vegan, as they’re animal byproducts. India views eggs as a type of meat, which is an even more incentive for vegans to avoid them. Vegetarians usually don’t eat eggs, but ovo-vegetarians will. So too will lacto-ovo-vegetarians.
So is it just chicken eggs that vegans can’t eat or all eggs? In this article, we’ll tell you exactly that. We’ll also recommend some vegan egg alternatives so you can make all the dishes above but free of animal products and byproducts.
Let’s get started!
Are Chicken Eggs Vegan?
Veganism is not just about eschewing animal products, which include the aforementioned beef, poultry, fish, shellfish, and seafood. You’re supposed to avoid animal byproducts as well, which are any parts of an animal besides its carcass that are consumed directly or used to make other foods. We wrote a hugely informative eBook on animal byproducts you should check out if you’re still fuzzy on them.
Using that definition from the paragraph above, eggs are an animal byproduct and thus not vegan. Once you hear of the horrific ways that farmers get eggs from chickens, you won’t ever want to eat them again.
Chickens that are used for egg production are factory farmed and kept in tiny enclosures, each about 300 inches. That’s the equivalent of 0.807 square feet. It’s extremely cramped in these enclosures, yet this is where the chickens spend their lives. They don’t get direct sun anymore, as they need specific lighting to encourage them to lay more eggs.
As chickens get older, they lay fewer and fewer eggs, yet factory farmers rarely wait until the chicken is several years old. Instead, they’ll kill the average factory-farm chicken in about 18 months. Then its meat will be sold through the farm. Since chickens can live for up to 10 years, a chicken’s lifespan is majorly slashed when it’s factory farmed!
Why not wait to kill the chicken? This is actually counterproductive to a farmer’s gains. Older chickens that are past the egg-laying stage do not have the same quality of meat as younger chickens. It makes more sense for the farmer to squeeze as many eggs out of a young chicken as possible and then kill it. They get twice the profit from the eggs and the poultry rather than just from the eggs.
Okay, but what about chickens from free-range farms? These chickens are supposed to be able to roam free, as the name suggests. They don’t get to do this all day, but for part of the day. Isn’t that more humane?
Somewhat, but it’s not enough. Sure, the chickens aren’t confined to cages all the time, but for more than half of their day, they are. The lifespan of the chicken is about the same, 18 months. Males will be killed even more quickly on a free-range farm, sometimes 15 minutes after they hatch from their eggs. Farmers will trim a female chicken’s beak whether they’re factory-farmed or free-range to prevent pecking.
What About Eggs from Other Animals? Are They Vegan Too?
It’s horrible what happens to chickens, and you don’t want to be a part of it anymore. If you avoid chicken eggs and develop a taste for eggs hatched by other feathered animals, does that mean you’re still adhering to the vegan diet?
No, it doesn’t. Whether they’re quail eggs, ostrich eggs, or duck eggs, they’re still animal byproducts. Besides, it’s not like the conditions these fowl undergo are any better than that of chickens. Take, for example, quails. According to Compassion in World Farming, every year, up to 1.4 billion quails are harvested for eggs and meat.
The quails that become meat die within five weeks of life, so they get a bit more time on this earth than male chickens, but not by much. The female quails are forced into laying eggs when they’re only seven weeks old. This goes on for about eight months, after which the quails are killed for their fresh meat. These quail don’t live as long as female chickens. In the meantime, the quails are living in small spaces like battery cages much like chickens.
It doesn’t matter which feathered animal it is. If it’s farmed for its eggs and meat, then it’s exposed to very cruel conditions that vegans cannot condone.
Can Vegetarians Eat Eggs?
What if you’re a vegetarian looking to transition to veganism? Your current diet cuts out fish, poultry, and meat, but you may still have some dairy. Are you allowed to eat eggs?
Vegetarians are not supposed to, but there is a subset of vegetarians that consume eggs. They’re known as ovo-vegetarians.
The “ovo” is a Latin word that means egg. You may choose the ovo-vegetarian diet if you eat kosher Jewish food. In that culture, they don’t believe eggs are dairy nor meat. Instead, eggs are pareve, which refers to food that is made milk-free, meat-free, and free of milk or meat derivatives.
Buddhists and Hindus may be ovo-vegetarians, and Jains typically are. Even outside of cultural or religious reasons, those who consume eggs don’t consider them animals since an egg is not a fully-formed creature.
Another subset of vegetarians called lacto-ovo-vegetarians eats eggs and dairy as well. However, they will not consume meat, poultry, fish, seafood, and shellfish.
Vegan-Friendly Egg Substitutes to Try Today
As a vegan, giving up eggs is hard, but it doesn’t have to be impossible. Here are some great egg replacements that will enrich your diet.
Follow Your Heart VeganEgg
Although Follow Your Heart’s VeganEgg comes in a carton, there are no eggs in there. Their plant-based powdered egg substitute is low-sugar, non-GMO, kosher, vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free.
The ingredients are beta carotene for color, black salt, nutritional yeast, herbs for flavor, carrageenan, plant-based calcium lactate, cellulose, gellan gum, modified cellulose, and organic soymilk powder.
Tapioca Starch
The cassava plant’s roots produce tapioca starch. If you need eggs for thickening or binding, tapioca starch is a plant-based substitute to reach for. For every egg you want to replace, combine water (three tablespoons) with tapioca starch (a tablespoon).
Hold onto some of your tapioca starch to make vegan mayo too, which tastes as good as the real deal but is completely dairy-free.
Just Egg
When you’re craving scrambled eggs, it doesn’t get any easier than Just Egg. You pour it into a pan and cook! This vegan product in a bottle is free of wheat, milk, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, eggs, peanuts, and gluten.
The ingredients in Just Egg are nisin, transglutaminase, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, tapioca syrup, sugar, soy lecithin, salt, potassium citrate, natural turmeric extracts for color, natural flavors, natural carrot extractives for color, gellan gum, dehydrated onion, expeller-pressed canola oil, mung bean protein isolate, and water.
Tofu
You can also whip up some vegan scrambled eggs using tofu. Although tofu blocks start off looking anything but egg-like, by mixing them with herbs, using some turmeric powder for coloring, and putting them on a hot pan, tofu quickly becomes like your favorite scrambled breakfast. Don’t forget to use seasonings to give the tofu eggs more flavor!
Neat Egg
The egg substitute known as Neat Egg is good to have in your pantry as well. This non-GMO product is plant-based, all-natural, kosher, and vegan. To use Neat Egg, mix the egg replacement product (a tablespoon) with water (two tablespoons) and stir until you get a paste. Neat Egg acts as a binder. One pack gives you the equivalent of 18 eggs!
Neat also makes meat replacement mixes that taste like ground beef, Italian beef, or taco meat if you’re interested.
Banana
The backbone of the vegan diet is undoubtedly bananas. You can use bananas to make creamy ice cream or frozen yogurt, and it comes in handy for prepping dishes with eggs in them too. Since bananas are sweet and eggs aren’t, we only recommend bananas for baked goods such as brownies, cookies, and cakes. Some banana flavor can be imparted to the final result.
For every egg you need in your baking recipe, use a tablespoon of banana. Applesauce works in a pinch as well. Unsweetened applesauce may not add any flavor to your recipe, but the sweetened stuff can.
Linseed
Flaxseed or linseed, when grounded into meal, will thicken up savory and sweet dishes alike. Combine ground linseed meal (a tablespoon) with water (three tablespoons). Stir until the ingredients get thick. Then let your flax egg chill in the fridge.
About 15 minutes later, the flax egg should be firm enough that it can work as a thickener. The flax egg replaces one chicken egg.
Conclusion
Eggs are not acceptable for vegans to eat, as the chickens, quails, and other birds in which eggs are sourced from are treated inhumanely. Vegetarians who eat eggs are called ovo-vegetarians and they often do so for religious or personal reasons.
With so many great egg substitutes out there, following an egg-free diet is easier than you ever thought possible.