Vegan answers

No. Cheese is made from milk, so all dairy cheese is non-vegan - and most hard cheeses also use animal rennet.

Dark chocolate often yes, milk chocolate no, white chocolate no - unless explicitly labelled vegan.

Most plain bread is vegan, but watch for milk, butter, eggs, honey, and animal-derived dough conditioners (E920, E471).

No. Gelatin is made from boiled animal bones, skin and connective tissue (usually pig or cow). It is never vegan.

No. Eggs are animal products, so the mainstream vegan position is that eggs are not vegan, regardless of how the hens were raised.

Yes, but some refined cane sugar in the US is filtered through bone char.

No, by the mainstream vegan definition. Honey is produced by bees, who are animals.

Technically yes — it is plant-derived. Ethically complicated because of deforestation and orangutan/elephant habitat loss.

Sometimes. The grapes are vegan; the fining step often is not.

Sometimes. The ingredients are vegan; the clarifying process often is not.

Easily. Most adults need about 0.8g protein per kg of bodyweight, and a varied plant-based diet hits that comfortably from beans, tofu, tempeh, seitan, lentils, quinoa, and whole grains.

The molecules themselves are usually fine — the capsule shells, the D3 source, and the omega-3 source are where most vitamins fail.

Vegetarians do not eat meat or fish. Vegans also exclude eggs, dairy, honey, and other animal products. Vegan is the stricter category.

Most E-numbers are vegan, but a handful are always or sometimes animal-derived. The big ones to know: E120 carmine, E441 gelatine, E542 bone phosphate, E901 beeswax, E904 shellac, E920 L-cysteine, E966 lactitol, E1105 lysozyme.

Excellent. The UK has the most developed vegan retail and dining scene in Europe outside Germany.

Outstanding. Germany has the highest density of vegan products in supermarkets globally and Berlin is one of the world capitals of vegan dining.

Easier than reputation suggests. Vegetables, beans, and grain dishes are central to Italian cuisine. Watch for hidden cheese, anchovies in pasta sauces, and egg pasta.

One of Europe's easiest vegan countries thanks to Orthodox fasting (nistisimo) cuisine. Many traditional dishes are vegan by religious tradition; look for "nistisimo" on menus.

Improving fast in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka with dedicated vegan restaurants. Outside the big cities, eating vegan needs more planning - dashi (fish stock) hides in almost everything traditional.

Excellent in Bangkok and Chiang Mai with dedicated jay (Buddhist vegan) restaurants. Outside cities, the challenge is fish sauce and shrimp paste in almost every savoury sauce - learn one phrase and you are sorted.

Quoted positions from Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, BDA, Kaiser, NHMRC, Harvard, WHO/IARC. Sources cited, no spin.

Plain-language definitions of vegan ingredients, certifications, fining agents, and additive families.

The four vegan-level tiers we use and how we verify each entry.

Original analysis of 52,870 verified places - top countries, fully-vegan share by region, city density.

Where they win, where we win, where we are catching up. We use both.