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Aisle guide
Ice cream and frozen desserts
Ice cream is milk, sugar, air and a short list of decisions: what emulsifies it, what colours it, whether gelatin sets a ripple, and what carries the vanilla.
Two-minute freezer check
- Emulsifier first. E471 and E477 are source-dependent. A vegan mark on the tub often settles the fat.
- Then colour and ripple. Carmine (E120) and gelatin show up in berry swirls and marshmallow ribbons.
- Then the flavour. Vanilla extract and natural flavour have a cited alcohol-carrier disagreement. See flavourings.
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Source-dependentE471
Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids
The emulsifier in bread, ice cream, margarine and peanut butter. The same E-number covers palm-oil production and pig-fat production, and food law doe…
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Source-dependentE441
Gelatin
The single most important ingredient to check in processed food. Gelatin is a protein boiled from animal skin, bones and connective tissue — and in We…
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DisputedE120
Carmine (cochineal)
A red dye crushed from cochineal insects. The majority of scholars and most certifiers rule it haram; a minority permit it. This is a genuine disagree…
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Disputed
Vanilla extract
Real vanilla extract is vanilla beans steeped in alcohol and water. Whether that alcohol carrier matters is one of the most genuinely contested questi…
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Source-dependentE422
Glycerin (glycerol)
A sweet humectant that keeps foods moist. The molecule is identical whether it came from palm oil or pig fat — which is exactly why the source has to …
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Source-dependent
Natural flavors
'Natural flavor' is the least informative word pair on the label — a regulated term that covers hundreds of compounds, some animal-derived, many alcoh…
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HalalE407
E407 Carrageenan
Halal
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HalalE410
E410 Locust Bean Gum (Carob Gum)
Halal
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Source-dependent
Marshmallow
A sugar foam. Traditional marshmallow is set with gelatin, so the ruling follows the gelatin row — porcine is haram, fish or zabiha bovine is a differ…
A procedure for reading a pack - not a product certification and not a fatwa. See the methodology.