Vegetarianism

Although many of our customers are not vegetarian, as Cambridge’s only 100% vegetarian shop for those that are, shopping at Arjuna can take away the hassle of having to check the back of every label! A large majority of our products are also vegan. Any products containing eggs or dairy are organic and are well labelled.
Although in recent years vegetarianism has become more mainstream, there are still many products which are difficult to obtain in vegetarian form due to the mainstream use of animal derived additives such as:

Gelatine (Also known as E441): This is a common gelling agent used in cakes, jelly, ice cream, sweets, wines and even cosmetics. It is made from the extraction of collagen from the connective tissue of animals. We sell a range of alternative gelling agents such as agar agar flakes, arrowroot and we even sell vegetarian jelly crystals!

Rennet: The enzymes used in cow’s stomachs for digestion, used in most cheese making. Vegetarian cheese are more readily available now, but always check that the package states that it is vegetarian, or that it contain’ vegetarian rennet’ (Which is not related to rennet, but the term is used for the replacing ingredient). We stock a variety of organic rennet free cheeses to choose from.

Isinglass: This is derived from fish swim bladders and is used specifically for the clarification of wines. Winemakers are not obliged to declare on the label when they use animal by-products as fining agents. Egg whites and casein (milk protein) are also used in winemaking.
We hope to provide a wide range of products free from animal products, and free from the stress of looking at every label!