Is Vanilla Extract, Organic Vegan?

The Ingredient Breakdown

As a food scientist, I look beyond the front label to the actual composition of the liquid. When analyzing WATER, ORGANIC ALCOHOL, and ORGANIC VANILLA BEAN EXTRACTIVES, the chemistry itself is sound for a vegan diet. The alcohol is typically derived from corn or sugar cane, and the vanilla is simply the flavor compound extracted from the bean. However, the vegan status of a food product is determined not just by the recipe, but by the manufacturing environment.

The critical flag here is the facility warning: PRODUCED IN A FACILITY THAT PROCESSES TREE NUTS, MILK, EGGS, WHEAT, SOY AND SESAME. In the food industry, we call this a 'cross-contamination' or 'shared equipment' risk. While the vanilla extract itself doesn't contain milk solids, the machinery used to bottle it might be used for dairy-based products earlier in the production run. Strict vegans avoid products with this warning because trace amounts of animal products could potentially be present.

Nutritional Value

From a nutritional standpoint, vanilla extract is used in such small quantities that it is negligible in terms of macronutrients. A standard serving size is typically one teaspoon (5ml), which contains roughly 12 to 14 calories, almost entirely from the alcohol and trace sugars in the vanilla bean. There is zero fat and zero protein. It fits easily into almost any diet plan, including keto and low-carb, because the sugar content is minimal. The 'organic' label ensures no synthetic pesticides were used on the vanilla beans, but it does not change the calorie count.