The two terms "vegetarian" and "vegan" describe not only the diet, but the entire lifestyle. What both have in common is a highly ethical approach to personal lifestyle, diet and consumer goods. Both vegetarians and vegans want to avoid killing animals and reject industrialised factory farming. Vegetarianism is also understood as a world view. The motives for a vegetarian lifestyle range from ethical-moral, religious-spiritual, health, hygienic-toxicological and aesthetic to ecological and social motives. There are different forms with the following criteria:
- Ovo-lacto-vegetarians - abstain from meat and fish; eggs and dairy products are permitted
- Lacto-vegetarians - avoid meat, fish and eggs; milk and dairy products are permitted
- Ovo-vegetarians - no meat, fish, milk and dairy products; eggs are permitted
- Pescetarians - no meat from animals at the same temperature (constant value regardless of ambient temperature, mammals and birds), fish and seafood are permitted (animals at different temperatures such as reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, worms)
- Flexitarians - special quality meat is only permitted in exceptional cases, e.g. from organic farms
- Vegans - abstain from all animal products (including honey) this also applies to the purchase of animal products such as leather products, fur, wool, down and silk
- Frutarians - only eat plants that are not damaged during harvesting, i.e. fruit, nuts and seeds (the use of vegetable plants is controversial among frutarians)
Winemaking
In viticulture, this means doing without aids or products of animal origin. This includes fining and stabilising with protein-containing agents such as albumin, egg white or casein (vegan) or using gelatine and isinglass (vegetarian). Although these substances are only used for treatment, small residues in the wine cannot be ruled out. It is not uncommon for organic wines to fulfil the criteria for such wines. As no proteins are used, such wines are also better tolerated by allergy-sensitive people. Vegetarian or vegan production has no influence on the flavour. Such a wine is not a priori characterised by better quality.
