Now here’s something that will be good for vegans but bad for veganism: an iPhone app called Vegetarian Scanner that determines whether any of the big, chemical-sounding words on an ingredients label are non-vegan additives.

As this video shows, cautious vegans take a photo of the ingredients list with their iPhone, click on the questionable words and then see whether they are animal-derived or not. Maybe it will eventually include an alarm that sounds if there are animal ingredients and you go ahead and try to buy the product anyway.

Apparently this doesn’t work on all labels yet, but if the idea spreads, it has the potential to make shopping safe again for vegans determined to keep their bodies free from non-vegan taint. 

For veganism as a movement, however, Vegetarian Scanner is a major setback.

In this video, soothing music plays as the iPhone determines whether Tocopherol-Rich Extract, Calcium Phosphates, Magnesium Carbonates and Fatty Acid Esters of Ascorbic Acid (i) Ascorbyl Palmitate are animal-derived. But the real sound vegans are likely to hear as they re-take photos until they get the ingredients label perfectly in focus is the laughing of their bemused friends. Especially if the vegan had just been bragging about how natural vegan food is.

Even if you’re alone at the grocery store while you scan ingredients labels, it won’t be long before someone asks what you’re up to. And if you say the truth, “I’m vegan and I’m checking to make sure there are no trace amounts of animal product in this,” you’ve just made veganism look like a religion to them.

“Oh those crazy vegans,” they’ll think as they shake their heads and walk away, “It sure is foolish to care about animals.”