Is There a Vegan Collagen? What Plant 'Collagen' Products Contain

There is no vegan collagen. Collagen is a protein made only by animals; no plant, fungus or seaweed produces it, so a vegan product cannot contain it. What is sold as "vegan collagen" is a collagen builder: vitamin C, zinc, copper, amino acids and plant extracts meant to support the collagen your body makes for itself. Vitamin C's authorised wording, "contributes to normal collagen formation", describes a process the vitamin is needed for, not a promise that more vitamin C makes more collagen. Lab-made collagen exists but has not been tested as a supplement, and the trial evidence for collagen peptides comes entirely from animal-derived peptides. The Wellgard collagen guide covers what collagen does in the body.

Is there a vegan collagen?

No. A collagen-based extracellular matrix is a defining feature of every animal, from hydra to humans; plants build their structure from cellulose.¹ A tub labelled vegan has no collagen in it by definition; the word on the front names the goal, not the contents.

What do "vegan collagen" products actually contain?

The pattern on the back of the pack is consistent: vitamin C, usually zinc and copper, sometimes silica or biotin, free amino acids (glycine, proline and lysine, which collagen is rich in) and a plant extract such as bamboo, hibiscus or aloe. The labels call this a collagen builder or support formula, and the name is accurate: the product supplies raw materials and the body does the building. Where a serving provides at least 15% of a nutrient's reference value, the product may carry that nutrient's authorised wording: "Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of skin" (and separately for blood vessels, bones, cartilage, gums and teeth), "Copper contributes to maintenance of normal connective tissues" and "Zinc contributes to the maintenance of normal skin" (hair and nails have their own zinc wordings).² Amino acids, silica, plant extracts and collagen itself have no authorised claim in Great Britain: a fact about the register, not a verdict on any of them.

What does vitamin C's authorised wording mean, and what does it not say?

Vitamin C is a cofactor for the enzymes that modify proline and lysine as a collagen chain is built; without that step the triple helix does not form properly, and the vitamin's role in stimulating collagen synthesis is well established in laboratory work.³ The authorised wording says exactly that: the vitamin is needed for the normal process. It does not say that more vitamin C makes more collagen. The NHS puts the adult need at 40 mg a day, says most people get it from food, and notes that more than 1,000 mg a day can cause stomach pain, diarrhoea and flatulence.⁴ What is vitamin C good for covers the rest of its evidence.

Do collagen builders raise your own collagen?

That has not been measured. One randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot has tested a plant extract marketed as a collagen builder: 98 adults aged 35 to 60 took 1.5 g a day of a hibiscus enzyme extract or placebo for 12 weeks, and the extract group improved on skin hydration, water loss through the skin, elasticity and wrinkle depth.⁵ Several authors declared commercial employment, and skin collagen was not an outcome. So one plant extract improved skin measures in one 12-week pilot; whether any builder changes the amount of collagen in skin is not known. Untested and ineffective are different words.

Is lab-made collagen vegan?

Recombinant collagen is real. The human collagen gene, with the genes for the enzymes that finish the protein, goes into yeast, bacteria or a plant such as tobacco; the host grows in a fermenter or glasshouse and makes human type I collagen that forms stable helices and fibrils like the native protein.⁶ No animal is involved, hence the names animal-free or precision-fermented collagen; it appears in skincare and medical materials. Two caveats: it is chemically an animal protein made by a non-animal host, so whether it counts as vegan is a personal definition; and none has been tested as an oral supplement in a published human trial. What collagen peptides are explains how peptides are made from animal collagen.

Is eggshell membrane vegetarian collagen?

Eggshell membrane, the thin skin inside a hen's egg, is a fibrous membrane whose constituents include collagens alongside many other proteins; only a fraction of it is collagen, and it is dosed in milligrams.⁷ It is vegetarian, not vegan, and unsuitable for anyone with an egg allergy. In a manufacturer-run trial of 67 people with knee osteoarthritis, 500 mg a day for eight weeks cut pain scores by 15.9% and stiffness by 12.8% at ten days versus placebo; function and the overall score were not significantly improved.⁸ In a 150-person trial, 300 mg a day for 12 weeks did not change the primary pain rating compared with placebo, but did improve the pain and daily-living scores of a knee questionnaire from the first week.⁹

Do figs or any other plants contain collagen?

No, and figs are the clearest example of the opposite. Fig latex contains a collagen-degrading serine protease that cuts up gelatine and collagen; it is why figs tenderise meat.¹⁰ A fig, or a fig stem, is a source of an enzyme that breaks collagen down, not of collagen. What foods are high in collagen lists the animal foods that do.

How can a vegan support their own collagen?

By supplying what the body uses to make it, and by protecting what it already has.

• Protein. Glycine, proline and lysine come from any complete protein. The NHS vegan diet guidance is to eat some beans, pulses and other proteins, fortified soya drinks and yoghurts, and nuts and seeds every day.¹¹ How much protein do vegans need gives the targets and the foods that reach them.
• Vitamin C. 40 mg a day; the NHS lists oranges, peppers, strawberries, blackcurrants, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and potatoes as sources.⁴
• Zinc. About 9.5 mg a day for men and 7 mg for women; the NHS names bread and cereal products such as wheatgerm among the sources, and says not to take more than 25 mg a day from supplements unless a doctor advises it.¹²
• Copper. 1.2 mg a day; nuts are the NHS's first-listed source, and 10 mg or less a day is unlikely to cause harm.¹²

Protecting what you have matters as much, chiefly from ultraviolet light and smoking; what destroys collagen goes through it.

Where does the trial evidence for collagen come from?

From animal-derived collagen peptides. The largest skin meta-analysis pooled 26 randomised controlled trials in 1,721 people and found hydrolysed collagen improved skin hydration and elasticity compared with placebo, with no significant difference between collagen sources on elasticity.¹³ Every trial in it used collagen hydrolysed from animal tissue, because no other collagen exists to test. Collagen peptides also have an amino acid pattern no plant protein mirrors: a 20 g serving produced a plasma glycine peak of 683 micromol/L against 260 for the same amount of dairy protein.¹⁴ Collagen lacks tryptophan, so it is an incomplete protein; a modelling study found up to about 36% of daily protein can come from collagen peptides while every indispensable amino acid need is met.¹⁵ Types of collagen explained covers what the type numbers mean after hydrolysis. None of this asks a vegan to change their choice; it is why a builder and a peptide are different products with different evidence.

Frequently asked questions

Is marine collagen vegetarian?

No. Marine collagen is hydrolysed from fish skin and scales, so it is neither vegetarian nor vegan, and it is unsuitable for anyone with a fish allergy.

Is gelatine vegan?

No. Gelatine is partly broken-down animal collagen from pig or cattle skin and bone, so the gelatine in sweets, capsules and jellies is animal-derived unless the pack says otherwise. Agar, pectin and carrageenan are the vegan gelling agents; they set liquids and contain no collagen.

Is "vegan collagen" labelling allowed?

Food law requires that information "shall not be misleading" as to the nature, identity or composition of a food, or by attributing to it properties it does not possess.¹⁶ Most products therefore say "collagen builder" or "collagen support" rather than claiming to contain collagen. The shopper's safe reading is that the word names the aim.

Does vegan collagen have side effects?

It depends on the blend, because there is no collagen to react to. The NHS cautions that apply: more than 1,000 mg of vitamin C a day can cause stomach pain and diarrhoea; more than 25 mg of zinc a day from supplements should not be taken without medical advice; high doses of copper can cause stomach pain, sickness and diarrhoea.^4,12

Sources

1. Zhang X, et al. The collagens of hydra provide insight into the evolution of metazoan extracellular matrices. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2007. PubMed 17204477.
2. Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012, Annex: list of permitted health claims (assimilated law in Great Britain). legislation.gov.uk.
3. Pullar JM, Carr AC, Vissers MCM. The roles of vitamin C in skin health. Nutrients, 2017. PubMed 28805671.
4. NHS. Vitamins and minerals: vitamin C. nhs.uk.
5. Baek Y, et al. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2025. PubMed 40806423.
6. Shoseyov O, Posen Y, Grynspan F. Human recombinant type I collagen produced in plants. Tissue Engineering Part A, 2013. PubMed 23252967.
7. Ahmed TA, Suso HP, Hincke MT. In-depth comparative analysis of the chicken eggshell membrane proteome. Journal of Proteomics, 2017. PubMed 28087451.
8. Ruff KJ, et al. Eggshell membrane in the treatment of pain and stiffness from osteoarthritis of the knee: a randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study. Clinical Rheumatology, 2009. PubMed 19340512.
9. Kiers JL, Bult JHF. Mildly processed natural eggshell membrane alleviates joint pain associated with osteoarthritis of the knee: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study. Journal of Medicinal Food, 2021. PubMed 32633648.
10. Raskovic B, et al. Identification, purification and characterization of a novel collagenolytic serine protease from fig (Ficus carica var. Brown Turkey) latex. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, 2014. PubMed 24982021.
11. NHS. The vegan diet. nhs.uk.
12. NHS. Vitamins and minerals: others (zinc, copper). nhs.uk.
13. Pu SY, et al. Effects of oral collagen for skin anti-aging: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrients, 2023. PubMed 37432180.
14. Alcock RD, et al. Plasma amino acid concentrations after the ingestion of dairy and collagen proteins, in healthy active males. Frontiers in Nutrition, 2019. PubMed 31681789.
15. Paul C, Leser S, Oesser S. Significant amounts of functional collagen peptides can be incorporated in the diet while maintaining indispensable amino acid balance. Nutrients, 2019. PubMed 31096622.
16. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, Article 7: fair information practices (assimilated law in Great Britain). legislation.gov.uk.