What is the difference between vegan and vegetarian?

There are many types of diets people follow today, ranging from living without sugar to living without animal products. When it comes to the latter, people often ask, 'what is the difference between vegan and vegetarian diets?'  

To put it simply, vegans generally avoid any food coming from animals. This includes dairy products such as yogurt and cheese, and even extends to items such as wool, leather, silk and down (made from feathers). Vegans will also stay away from cosmetics or other household products containing animal materials or those that have been tested on animals.

Vegetarians, on the other hand, do not consume any type of animal meat, but they will often consume dairy products.

The most common reason for avoiding meat usually stems from animal cruelty and ethical reasons, but environmental and health reasons also play a significant role. It is estimated that there are around 79 million vegans in the world today. 

However, finding suitable products for vegans and vegetarians can be challenging, since many foods contain traces of animal products.

Making healthy food products more readily available for vegans and vegetarians is a core reason for which Frusano was founded. We want to ease the lives of vegan and vegetarian people around the world.

It all started with a simple analysis of the market's products before we developed our own. Today, we offer a wide range of 100% vegan and vegetarian products for a healthy lifestyle. 

What are the different types of veganism and vegetarianism?

There are actually several subgroups of veganism and vegetarianism. With vegetarians, we can differentiate between six different subgroups:

• The Classic Vegetarian: Also known as the Ovo-Lacto-Vegetarian. This type of vegetarian does not consume any type of meat, poultry or fish. Their diet, however, does include eggs, milk, and other dairy products.
• The Ovo-Vegetarian: This type of vegetarian consumes eggs, but refuses meat, poultry, fish and no dairy products or milk.
• The Lacto-Vegetarian: This type consumes milk and dairy products, but no meat, fish, poultry or eggs.
• The Ovo-Lacto-Pescatarian: This type of vegetarian forgoes meat and poultry, but consumes fish, milk, dairy products and eggs.
• The Flexitarians: The rising group of the vegetarians. They usually keep a vegetarian diet but occasionally eat meat of good quality.
• Half-Vegetarian: Some people only consume certain type of meat. In this case, they usually do not consume any type of red meat but eat poultry and fish.

Similar to the subgroups of vegetarians, there is also one subgroup for the vegans. Those are called fruitarians which have even stricter diet rules than the vegans. Typical for this type vegans are the consumption of fruits, nuts and seeds only. In very extreme cases, fruitarians only eat fruits that already have been fallen off a tree as they try not to damage a plant.

According to the strict doctrine of fruitarians, many vegetables are forbidden as well: potatoes and carrots, for example, grow in the soil. Their harvest is only possible by damaging and destroying a plant. Therefore, this is not acceptable to fruitarians.

Frusano's vegan and vegetarian-friendly products

Most of our Frusano products are made without any testing on animals. We care about the life of animals and that of our environment. Frusano is proud to make a wide range of vegan products that allow people to keep a balanced diet that also includes high-quality sweets and treats.

We also invite you to be inspired by our nutritious and tasty recipes – whether you're vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian, or omnivorous!