Are Figs Vegan?

Last Updated on November 9, 2023 by Fasting Planet

Fruits grow on trees or vines, so you assume that whether you want to sample an exotic fruit like the papaya or a common one like the banana that you can eat it as a vegan. Yet a vegan buddy of yours warned you against using figs for that scone recipe you were going to make. Are figs not vegan-safe?

Figs that are pollinated by wasps are technically vegan since the dead female wasp’s body is enzymatically broken down before the figs are commercially sold. Not all figs require wasp pollination, and those figs are especially vegan-safe.

In this article, we’ll go in-depth on how figs are pollinated so you can decide whether you feel comfortable eating this fruit as a vegan. Should you choose to go fig-free, we’ll recommend other fruits you can use instead of figs in your favorite baked good recipes.

Let’s get started!

What Are Figs?

Before we can talk about their pollination process, let’s be clear on what figs themselves are.

The Ficus carica is the tree that produces fig fruit. It’s a member of the mulberry family and grows natively in western Asia and the Mediterranean. The average Ficus carica or common fig tree is 22 to 33 feet tall, and it’s favored as an ornamental.

When the Ficus carica produces fruit, the fig begins as a syconium or a fig inflorescence. An inflorescence refers to a flower cluster. The syconium includes a hollow opening with ovaries that become unisexual flowers.

Figs are multiple fruits or infructescence. What does this mean? As a multiple fruit, a fig’s flowering inflorescences can also flower, growing into a mass and then later, a true fruit. Besides figs, other multiple fruits are breadfruits, Osage-oranges, mulberries, and pineapples.

Here is the nutritional information for a 40-gram fig:

30 calories
0 grams of fat
0 grams of protein
8 grams of carbs
1 gram of dietary fiber
0 grams of sugar
2 percent vitamin K
3 percent vitamin B6
2 percent thiamine
2 percent riboflavin
2 percent potassium
2 percent magnesium
3 percent copper

Figs are beneficial for your health in plenty of ways. If you have dry skin tied to allergies, fig extracts and other fruit extracts may help. This 2015 study from the journal Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology found that these fruit extracts could lessen wrinkles, prevent collagen depletion, and augment skin cell health.

However, there are two caveats we must mention. For one, multiple fruit extracts were used, not just fig extracts. Also, the study was performed on animals, so it’s uncertain if people would experience the same health perks.

What’s clearer is that consuming figs may reduce your cancer risk. The latex in Ficus carica plants and their leaves inhibit tumors that cause liver, cervical, breast, and colon cancers, multiple studies have found. One such study is this 2018 report from OncoTargets and Therapy.

Fig leaf extract might also increase HDL cholesterol, which is the good kind, notes this 2014 publication of the journal Phytotherapy Research. The fruit is also a proven remedy for digestive issues, as the fiber content in figs can be a prebiotic, combat constipation, and soften your stools.

How Fig Tree Pollination Works

As we discussed in the section above, the Ficus carica plant produces flowers. These flowers–like many others–can grow through pollination. Bees are known for their pollination capabilities. The way bees usually pollinate a flower is by relying on the fine hairs that cover its body. Those hairs generate electrostatic forces that pull out pollen grains. If a bee wants to, it can transport pollen from flower to flower.

Yet fig trees aren’t pollinated in quite the same way.

The fig syconium includes an ostiole, which is an opening in the center of the fig for a wasp to enter. Not just any wasp, but the Blastophaga psenes. This wasp pollinates the Ficus carica as well as the Ficus palmata, a related fig tree species.

The Blastophaga psenes or fig wasp is a short-lived bee species. Before their death, female fig wasps will find a fig tree using her sense of smell. Then she enters the fig fruit through the ostiole. This opening is a tight one, and her wings will not survive the entrance. Now if the wasp wanted to fly out of the fig, she would be unable. She will die in the fig.

Before that happens, the fig wasp may lay eggs, but it depends on whether the fig fruit is female. If it is, then the wasp doesn’t lay any eggs. However, since she already entered the fig, her death is imminent.

In male figs, the wasp lays eggs that soon hatch. Rather than exit through the ostiole, the larvae create a tunnel by eating through the fig. The male pollen is on their larval bodies, so once the wasps can fly, they spread the pollen to female figs.

Vegans don’t eat animal products, and insects are animals. Further, vegans avoid consuming animal products and byproducts due to the cruelty that is often associated with manufacturing these products.

If there’s a dead wasp in a fig, then surely figs are off-limits to vegans, right?

Well, it’s not like if you cut open a fig that you’d see a wasp corpse in the middle. Figs contain ficin, a type of enzyme that digests the fig wasp in full. You’re not eating a wasp when you enjoy a fig. It’s like the wasp was never there.

Okay, but isn’t pollinating figs cruel to the wasps? Not really. The Blastophaga psenes is known as the fig wasp because that’s its purpose in life: to pollinate fig trees. That’s it. If the fig wasp accomplishes this, then it’s successful, even if the female wasp has to die.

Is it unfortunate when female fig wasps enter a fig only to discover that the fruit is female and then die without laying eggs? Of course! Yet if the ostiole of the fig was meant to be larger, then evolutionarily, it would have developed that way. This is what’s supposed to happen in fig wasps.

Plus, consider this. Even if that female fig wasp hadn’t died in the fig fruit, her life was going to end soon anyway. Blastophaga psenes have astoundingly short lives. If the fig wasp doesn’t have a nest or colony, it can live for days. Otherwise, it survives for less than a month.

If you’re still not totally convinced, consider this. There is no human involvement during fig wasp pollination, none. Fig wasps aren’t taken out of their natural habitats by greedy humans, trapped in dark enclosures, and slaughtered. Everything they do is voluntary, so it can’t be viewed as animal cruelty.

For all those reasons, we’d say yes, figs are vegan.

Which Figs Don’t Rely on Bee Pollination?

Here’s the thing about fig trees. While most of them need fig wasps for pollination, plenty more don’t. Let’s discuss a few fig varieties you can seek out the next time you visit the farmer’s market or grocery store!

Mission Figs

The Franciscana or Black Mission fig, sometimes also referred to as the Mission fig, is a California fig species that is pink on the inside and darker on the outside. The quality of these figs makes them a great variety to try.

Brunswick Figs

Brunswick figs look more like pears, but we swear, they’re figs! Their flesh is reddish-yellow and they have a very sweet flavor. If you’re growing your own Brunswick figs, use a container and make sure the plant gets lots of light from a southerly-facing window.

Celeste Figs

Another sweet fig is the Celeste, which has that traditional fig look compared to Brunswick figs. Their flesh is an appealing pink hue and the skin is purple or brownish. If you’re looking for a dessert fruit, you must try the Celeste fig!

Brown Turkey Figs

The last fig variety that grows without fig wasps is the Brown Turkey. This large fig earned its name due to its dark skin, which is sometimes shades of purple or red. Inside is pale pink flesh that is sweet but not to the degree of a Celeste fig.

Need Some Fig Substitutes for Recipes? Try These Other Fruits

If you’re one of those vegans who prefers to tread extra carefully, then you may want to omit all figs from your diet, even the ones that don’t require wasp pollination. You always thought figs were an acquired taste anyway, but they sure show up in lots of tasty recipes!

You’d prefer to substitute the figs for something else, but what? Here are some suggestions.

Black Grapes

If you’re making a dish that calls for grilled figs, some vegans have had luck roasting black grapes. Season the grapes with salt and olive oil and cook them for 20 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Add the grapes to your vegan crostini and you have a sophisticated appetizer that will impress any party guest.

Roasted Beets

Okay, so beets are technically not a fruit, but still, they work as a great fig stand-in for a roasted fig recipe. When you roast, steam, or boil beets, the sweetness of their natural sugars comes out.

Medjool Dates

Medjool dates are another tasty fig alternative. You can eat them fresh or dry them out depending on what the fig recipe calls for. These dates are sweet like some figs, but not overpowering.

Apricots

Dried apricots work for almost any recipe that calls for dried figs. When all its juices are removed, the apricot tastes tart and sweet.

Conclusion

Most fig species require pollination by a wasp known as the fig wasp. The female wasp always dies inside the fruit, but her body is broken down so you’re not actually eating dead wasps when you enjoy a fig. The process of pollination is a natural one and thus is not animal cruelty. Vegans can eat figs should they want to.

If you’re not already enjoying figs as a vegan, maybe now is the time you decide to start!