by Vegan. Yes!
This was a question from Lynne. Thanks, Lynne. If you have a question, you can send them to us with the convenient form in the sidebar. Now onto the explanation.
According to this ingredient listing from the Tesco website*, Tesco Hash Browns contain no animal products. The only item that concerned me was Dextrose. It must be a UK thing because dextrose is more commonly (at least in America) referred to as sucrose — it’s sugar. The sourcing of some of these items can sometimes be obscure. But with further fact finding, we come across another site that lists no cholesterol. I give this the thumbs up.
* Ingredient List: Potato (86%), Sunflower Oil, Onion (3%), Dried Potato, Potato Starch, Pea Fibre, Salt, Pepper, Curcumin, Onion Powder, Dextrose.
Dextrose and sucrose are different substances. Dextrose is a form of glucose, which is a monosaccharide: a simple sugar molecule. Sucrose is a disaccharide: a compound sugar molecule made up of two simple sugar molecules chemically combined. A sucrose molecule is, roughly speaking, made up of a glucose molecule joined to a fructose molecule.
Cholesterol is a different substance again. It is not a sugar, but a sterol. I don’t understand why you mentioned it in a paragraph about dextrose…?
You say that the sourcing is obscure, so surely that is an argument against dextrose being vegan, isn’t it? I know very little about food manufacturing, but the website “Your Daily Vegan” argues that dextrose is “probably not vegan”:
http://www.yourdailyvegan.com/2011/04/25/is-cultured-dextrose-lurking-in-your-vegan-food/
There are various different types of sugar, and both animals and plants contain them. Knowing that something is a sugar is not enough to tell whether or not it is suitable for vegans, sadly.