Vegan in Korea: where milk, egg and fish hide in packaged food
K-Food Label · Updated Oct 31, 2026
Finding vegan food in a Korean convenience store is harder than it looks. Of the 2,006 products we checked, only 337 (17%) list no animal-based allergen, and even those can contain fish.
Milk is everywhere
Milk is listed in 1,246 products (62%), more than beef, egg or any seafood. It turns up where you might not expect it: 84 of 112 snacks list it, including plain salted potato chips. Whey and casein, both milk proteins, appear in 121 ingredient lists.
Surprises in snacks and drinks
Pocachip Original, a plain salted potato chip, lists milk. Honey Butter Chip lists oyster among its allergens. Milkis, a soft drink, contains milk powder and whey. None of them is vegan.
Fish is mostly not an allergen in Korea
Korean allergen labelling covers mackerel and shellfish but not anchovy or most other fish. Anchovy appears in 172 ingredient lists and fish sauce (액젓) in 140, often in kimchi and soups, with no allergen warning. A product with no animal allergens is not automatically vegan.
Ready-to-eat meals are almost never vegan
Only 22 of 710 ready-to-eat products list no animal allergen. They are mostly yubu-chobap (rice in sweet tofu-skin pockets), cut fruit, grain powder drinks and seasoned vegetable side dishes. Even then, read the full ingredient list for fish sauce, anchovy and egg.
Numbers are computed from the Food QR label data published by Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and update every week. Products without allergen data (460) are excluded.