Vegetabiliska

Vegetabiliska is a Swedish adjective used to describe material, products, or substances that originate from plants or vegetables, rather than from animals. It is commonly employed in food labeling, nutrition, agriculture, and industry to distinguish plant-based origins from animal-based ones. The term can refer to edible plant matter such as vegetables, fruits, seeds, and oils, as well as to non-edible plant-derived substances like starch, fiber, and plant extracts. In practice, it signals a plant-based source or content.

Linguistically, vegetabilisk is the base form in Swedish, and vegetabiliska is the plural form used to modify plural nouns. The neuter singular form is vegetabiliskt, as in vegetabiliskt avfall, while plural nouns take vegetabiliska. The word derives from Latin vegetabilis and entered Swedish through scientific and technical usage, where it functions to categorize plant-derived materials distinct from animal-based materials.

In usage, vegetabiliska is common in contexts such as food products (vegetabiliska oljor, vegetabiliska råvaror), nutrition discussions (vegetabiliska proteinkällor), and agricultural or industrial descriptions (vegetabiliska råvaror, vegetabiliska ämnen). It is often contrasted with animaliskt or animaliska to emphasize the source of a product or substance. Although broad, the term is primarily associated with plant-derived materials rather than with natural, non-vegetal domains.

See also: plant-based, vegetarian, vegan, plant-derived, plant-based labeling, agricultural products.