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Salad dressing is a common condiment that is used to enhance the flavor of leafy greens and vegetables. There are many different types of salad dressing, but one of the most popular is Italian dressing. Wish-Bone Italian Dressing is a popular brand of Italian dressing that is known for its bold flavor. But, is Wish-Bone Italian Dressing vegan?
Fat Free Italian Dressing and Light Italian Dressing are vegan because they don’t contain any ingredients sourced from animals. Zesty Robusto Italian Dressing and Italian Dressing might also be vegan, but they contain natural flavor.
Below is a table showing Wish-Bone Italian Dressing flavors and its vegan status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Creamy Italian Dressing | No,contains Milk. |
| Fat Free Italian Dressing | Vegan. |
| Zesty Robusto Italian Dressing | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor. |
| Italian Dressing | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor. |
| House Italian Dressing | No, contains Milk & Eggs. |
| Light Italian Dressing | Vegan. |
| Italian Three Cheese Dressing | No, contains Milk. |
Wish-Bone Italian Dressing Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients from all the flavors that I could find.
- Annatto Extract (Color)
- Asiago Cheese (Pasteurized Milk
- Buttermilk
- Caramel Color
- Calcium Disodium EDTA (to Protect Quality)
- Cheese Cultures
- Cultured Pasteurized Part-Skim Milk
- Distilled Vinegar
- Egg Yolks
- Enzymes
- Garlic (Dried)
- Lemon Juice Concentrate
- Maltodextrin (Corn)
- Modified Gum Acacia
- Natural Flavor
- Onion (Dried)
- Parmesan Cheese
- Phosphoric Acid
- Potassium Sorbate
- Red Bell Peppers (Dried)
- Rosemary Extract
- Salt
- Sodium Benzoate
- Sorbic Acid
- Soybean Oil
- Spice
- Stevia Leaf Extract (Rebaudioside A)
- Sugar
- Water
- Whey
- Xanthan Gum
- Yeast Extract
[Source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Milk & Egg
Since both milk and eggs comes from animals, they are not vegan-friendly.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
Sugar is a controversial ingredient within the vegan community and many strict vegans tends to stay away from this ingredient. The reason for this is the possibility for bone char being used in the production process.
Two of the most common types of sugar are beet sugar and cane sugar. Beet sugar and raw cane sugar is always 100% vegan-friendly. However when the cane sugar is refined, it could be classified as non-vegan.
See when the cane sugar is refined it is also bleached and a common method to bleach the sugar is to use bone char from dead cows. Exploiting animals in the production process is not something that vegans wants to support, hence resulting in many vegans staying away from sugar just to be safe.
Natural Flavor
Natural flavors is an umbrella term, meaning that it often consists of several ingredients and this cause a problem for vegans because the source of these ingredients are not disclosed on the ingredients label.
This means that natural flavors could contain ingredients sourced from animals and just by reading the ingredients label, it’s impossible to know that. So vegans needs to be careful when consuming products containing natural flavors.
Enzymes
This ingredient can be sourced from both animals and plants making it a questionable ingredient.
Conclusion
It’s great that 2 of 7 flavors are definitely vegan and 2 more might also be vegan but they contain natural flavors, which could contain ingredients derived from animals. It’s important to vegans to be careful when it comes to natural flavors, because it’s hard to figure out if it’s vegan or not. The best way is to contact the company and ask.
Thanks for reading, take care!
