Is Kimchi vegan?
Depends — traditional kimchi is fermented with fish sauce or salted shrimp.
Key facts
- Verdict
- Depends on the brand
- Category
- Packaged food
- Also listed as
- Kimchi
- Best swap
- Vegan kimchi
Why
Jeotgal (salted seafood) is a standard kimchi ingredient. Temple-style and many commercial vegan kimchis use kelp stock and soy sauce instead, with the same lactic tang.
What to check on the label
- Fish sauce, saeujeot, anchovy
- "Temple" or "vegan" kimchi labels
- Korean vegan certification
Swap it for
What is actually in it
Kimchi itself is cabbage, radish, chilli, garlic, ginger and salt — all plants. What makes most jars non-vegan is the paste: jeotgal, a salted fermented seafood, usually saeujeot (tiny shrimp) or myeolchijeot (anchovy), plus sometimes fish sauce and, in a few recipes, a spoon of raw oyster. Producers add it for glutamates and free amino acids, which deepen savouriness during the two-to-four-week lacto-fermentation. The bacteria that actually sour kimchi (Leuconostoc mesenteroides, then Lactobacillus) live on the cabbage leaves, so removing seafood changes flavour, not fermentation. Korean temple cuisine (sachal eumsik) has made seafood-free kimchi for centuries using kelp and shiitake stock, and Buddhist temple recipes also omit the alliums, which is worth knowing if a jar labelled 'temple kimchi' tastes milder than expected.
Brand by brand
| Brand | Verdict | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Mother-in-Law's Vegan Kimchi | Vegan | Explicit vegan line, seafood-free; the original House Napa is not. |
| Jongga (Chongga) Original | Not vegan | Lists anchovy/shrimp extract; Jongga also sells a separate vegan-marked jar. |
| Bibigo Original | Not vegan | Contains fish sauce and shrimp; formulations vary by export market. |
| Wildbrine Korean Kimchi | Vegan | Plant-only recipe, labelled vegan on the tub. |
| Supermarket own-brand | Depends on the brand | Read the ingredient list every time — recipes change between batches and countries. |
Recipes change between markets and batches — treat this as a starting point and read the pack.
Label codes to recognise
- 젓갈 / jeotgal — Salted fermented seafood
- Animal
- 새우젓 / saeujeot — Salted shrimp
- Animal
- 멸치액젓 — Anchovy fish sauce
- Animal
- 다시마 / dasima — Kelp stock
- Plant
- 사찰 / temple — Temple-style, seafood-free
- Plant
Questions people ask
Does vegan kimchi ferment the same?
Yes — the lactic bacteria come from the cabbage, not the seafood.
What replaces the umami?
Kombu, dried shiitake and a spoon of miso.
Is kimchi in Korean restaurants vegan?
Assume not. The default banchan kimchi is made with jeotgal, and the same kitchen usually adds it to kimchi jjigae and kimchi fried rice too. Ask for 사찰김치 (temple kimchi) or 비건김치 (vegan kimchi).
How do I make vegan kimchi taste as deep?
Build umami in three layers: a kombu-and-shiitake stock for the porridge base, a tablespoon of doenjang or white miso, and a splash of soy sauce. Some cooks add a little pear or apple purée for the sugars the shrimp used to provide.
Does the gochugaru matter?
Yes for flavour, not for vegan status. Korean gochugaru is plain sun-dried chilli, but some non-Korean chilli blends add anti-caking agents or, rarely, shrimp powder.
Is kimchi still probiotic without seafood?
Yes. Lab studies of vegan kimchi show the same Lactobacillus and Leuconostoc succession and comparable live counts; jeotgal contributes flavour compounds, not the cultures.
More packaged food checks
Reviewed 2026-09-16 by the Veg.ac editorial team · Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link back.