No, ghee is not vegan. It is fat made only from milk, and India's food regulator defines vegan food as food in which nothing of animal origin is used at any stage. Ghee is vegetarian, though: Indian labelling law counts milk products as vegetarian, so it suits a lacto-vegetarian diet.
The question comes from new vegans, from cooks feeding a vegan guest, and from shoppers who have seen jars sold as "vegan ghee". This article answers each from FSSAI's own text.
At a glance
- Ghee is "derived exclusively from milk" under FSSAI's standard, so it is an animal product whatever the method: bilona, cream, cow, buffalo or A2.
- FSSAI's Vegan Foods Regulations, 2022 define vegan food as having nothing of animal origin at any stage, additives and processing aids included.
- Indian labelling law leaves milk products out of the non-vegetarian definition, so ghee carries the green dot and suits a lacto-vegetarian diet.
- "Vegan ghee" is a vegetable fat such as vanaspati, a fat spread or a plant oil, regulated under separate FSSAI standards that bar colouring or flavouring vanaspati like ghee.
- Low lactose or protein does not make ghee plant-based, because vegan describes origin, not composition; look for FSSAI's vegan logo and read the ingredients list.
Why is ghee not vegan?
Because it comes from an animal. FSSAI's ghee standard describes ghee as a fatty product "derived exclusively from milk or products obtained from milk", and lists ghee among milk products in its dairy chapter. A vegan diet excludes milk and everything made from it, so ghee falls outside it however it is produced.
The method does not change this. Bilona ghee, cream ghee, cow, buffalo or A2 ghee all start as milk. Our article on what desi ghee means covers how vegetable fats have borrowed the word.
How does FSSAI define vegan food?
FSSAI's Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Regulations, 2022, notified on 10 June 2022, give a legal definition. It rules out anything of animal origin: the food itself, every ingredient, and even additives, flavourings, enzymes, carriers and processing aids, at any stage of production and processing.
The definition, as published in the Gazette of India, reads:
"vegan food" means the food or food ingredient, including additives, flavourings, enzymes and carriers, or processing aids that are not products of animal origin and in which, at no stage of production and processing, ingredients, including additives, flavourings, enzymes and carriers, or processing aids that are of animal origin has been used.
The regulations also require that a food called vegan has not involved animal testing for any purpose, including safety evaluation, unless a regulatory authority requires it. They ask the maker to clean shared production lines before vegan products are made, and to avoid the unintended presence of non-vegan substances. And a package of vegan food must carry the vegan logo, but only after approval. The same regulations exempt vegan foods from the labelling clause that requires the green vegetarian dot.
Is ghee vegetarian in India?
Yes. FSSAI's Labelling and Display Regulations, 2020 define non-vegetarian food as food containing any part of an animal, eggs or products of animal origin, "but does not include milk, milk products, honey or bees wax or carnauba wax or shellac". Vegetarian food is everything else. Ghee is a milk product, so it is vegetarian food.
That is why a jar of ghee carries the green symbol, a green filled circle inside a square with a green outline, which the same regulations require on every package of vegetarian food. The green dot and the vegan logo answer different questions. The green dot says a food contains no animal or product of animal origin other than the ones the law exempts, such as milk and honey. The vegan logo says it has nothing of animal origin at all, milk included.
In dietary terms, ghee fits what MedlinePlus, the US National Library of Medicine's health encyclopedia, calls a lacto-vegetarian diet: one that "includes plant foods plus some or all dairy products". Its definition of a vegan diet is the one most people mean: "Includes only plant-based foods. No animal proteins or animal by-products such as eggs, milk, or honey."
What is "vegan ghee" made from?
A product sold as vegan ghee cannot contain milk, so it has to be a fat from plants: a vegetable oil or blend, a hydrogenated or interesterified oil such as vanaspati, or a spread of vegetable oils and water. None of them can meet FSSAI's ghee standard, which requires at least 99.5 per cent milk fat, so none of them is ghee in the legal sense.
The table sets ghee beside the FSSAI categories these alternatives usually fall under.
| Product | Made from | Vegan? | Vegetarian? | FSSAI category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghee | Milk or products obtained from milk only | No | Yes | Milk fat products (2.1.8, dairy chapter) |
| Butter oil, anhydrous milk fat | Milk or products obtained from milk only | No | Yes | Milk fat products (2.1.8, dairy chapter) |
| Mixed fat spread | Milk fat blended with vegetable oils or interesterified fat | No | Yes | Margarine and fat spreads (2.2.5) |
| Vegetable fat spread | Two or more vegetable oils or interesterified fat, in a water-in-oil emulsion | Only if no milk solids or other animal-origin ingredient is used | Yes | Margarine and fat spreads (2.2.5) |
| Table margarine | Edible oils and fats with water; may contain up to 2% skimmed milk powder | Only if made without milk powder or other animal-origin ingredient | Yes | Margarine and fat spreads (2.2.5) |
| Vanaspati | Refined edible vegetable oils, hydrogenated or interesterified | Can be, if every ingredient and additive is of non-animal origin | Yes | Hydrogenated vegetable oils (2.2.6) |
| Single vegetable oils (coconut, mustard and others) | Oil from one named plant source | Can be, on the same terms | Yes | Oils (2.2.1) |
A plant-oil base does not by itself make a product vegan: FSSAI allows table margarine up to 2 per cent skimmed milk powder, and its fat spread standard mentions milk solids-not-fat among what a spread may contain. Every row is vegetarian, because milk is excluded from the legal definition of non-vegetarian food.
How does FSSAI tell vegetable fats apart from ghee?
By standards written to keep them separate. Vanaspati may not have any colour resembling ghee added, and any flavour used must be distinct from that of ghee. It must also contain enough sesame oil to give a positive Baudouin test, which ghee must fail. Fat spreads may not be labelled with the word butter.
- The ghee standard is milk only. Ghee must be derived exclusively from milk, with at least 99.5 per cent milk fat and a negative Baudouin test. Its required name on the label is "Ghee".
- Vanaspati carries a marker. Its standard requires raw or refined sesame oil, enough that a 20:80 mix with refined groundnut oil gives a Baudouin colour no lighter than 2.0 red units. Vegetable fat spread has a similar requirement, at 2.5 red units.
- Dairy terms are protected. FSSAI's general rule says that for a product which is not milk or a milk product, no label or publicity material may claim, imply or suggest that it is one, unless the regulations provide otherwise. Where a product is intended to substitute a milk product, "dairy terms shall not be used".
- Analogues must say what replaced the milk. FSSAI defines an analogue in the dairy context as a product in which non-milk constituents take the place of milk constituents and which resembles a milk product. Its label must state "Contains …" for each non-milk constituent, near the product's name.
How the dairy-terms rule applies to a given "vegan ghee" label is for the regulator to judge. What the standards make plain is that a plant fat cannot be ghee in the legal sense, whatever it is called on the front of the pack.
Does ghee's low lactose and protein make it plant-based?
No. Vegan and plant-based describe where a food comes from, not how much of a nutrient survives processing. FSSAI's vegan definition turns on whether anything "of animal origin" was used, and ghee is milk fat. Having very little lactose or milk protein left does not change its source.
Clarification does remove most of milk's other components. FSSAI's standard requires ghee to be at least 99.5 per cent milk fat, so water, protein, lactose and everything else together can make up no more than 0.5 per cent. Our articles on whether ghee is lactose free and how much protein ghee has cover the measurements.
But "almost none" describes composition; vegan describes origin. A fat derived exclusively from milk is an animal product, whatever its protein or lactose content. Nor should people with a milk allergy treat ghee as dairy-free: anyone with a diagnosed or suspected milk allergy should follow their doctor's advice.
What can replace ghee for a vegan cook?
Any plant oil or plant-based fat that suits the dish, chosen on its own merits rather than as an imitation of ghee. For a vegan guest, the clearest choice is a product that carries FSSAI's vegan logo, or a single named vegetable oil whose label lists nothing else alongside it.
A few practical points follow.
- Read the ingredients list, not the front of the pack. Words like "vegetable ghee" or "plant ghee" describe a style, not a guarantee. Margarines and spreads may contain milk solids.
- Look for the vegan logo. Under the 2022 regulations, the logo goes on a package only after approval, so its presence means the maker applied and was approved.
- Remember that green is not vegan. The green dot appears on ghee, paneer and curd too, because all three are milk products.
- Check for trans fat if the product is hydrogenated. FSSAI caps trans fatty acids in vanaspati, margarine and vegetable and mixed fat spreads at 2 per cent by weight from 1 January 2022.
Himdhara ghee is made from the milk of Badri cattle in the Uttarakhand hills, set into curd and churned on a wooden bilona. That makes it vegetarian, and no more vegan than any other ghee.
The short version
Ghee is not vegan, because it is fat derived exclusively from milk, and FSSAI defines vegan food as food in which nothing of animal origin is used at any stage. It is vegetarian under India's labelling law, which leaves milk products out of the non-vegetarian definition, so it carries the green dot and suits a lacto-vegetarian diet. Products sold as vegan ghee are vegetable fats such as vanaspati, fat spreads or plant oils, which FSSAI regulates under separate standards and keeps distinct from ghee. If you need a product to be vegan, look for FSSAI's vegan logo and read the ingredients list.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (2022). Food Safety and Standards (Vegan Foods) Regulations, 2022. The Gazette of India: Extraordinary, Part III, Section 4.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (2023). Chapter 2.1: Dairy Products and Analogues. Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (2023). Chapter 2.2: Fats, Oils and Fat Emulsions. Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (2025). Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020, Version VIII. FSSAI.
- MedlinePlus (2024). Vegetarian diet. MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, US National Library of Medicine.