This is a starting point, not a complete list, and not a safe list. Alpha-gal varies a lot between people and can change over time, so the last word is always yours and your doctor's. What follows is grouped by how much the word on the packet actually tells you, because that is the part most lists leave out.
Named mammal, no ambiguity
If one of these is on the label, it is there. Nothing to phone anybody about.
- Beef, pork, lamb, goat, venison, bison, rabbit, and anything else from a mammal.
- Gelatin. Mammal collagen, in sweets, marshmallows, some yoghurts and most capsule shells.
- Collagen, when the source is not named or is given as bovine.
- Lard, tallow, suet, rendered fat.
- Broth, stock or bouillon that names the animal: beef stock, bone broth, meat stock.
- Casings on things that are not beef. Turkey and chicken sausages are sometimes in beef casing.
Could be either, and the label will not say
These are the ones worth a question rather than a decision. Every one of them has a plant version and an animal version, and labelling law does not require anyone to tell you which you have.
- Broth, stock, bouillon or gravy where no animal is named. Chicken and vegetable ones say so; an unqualified one does not tell you either way.
- Natural flavors. A legal category, not an ingredient.
- Glycerin, or glycerol.
- Stearic acid and magnesium stearate.
- Mono- and diglycerides.
- Polysorbate 80, built from oleic acid, which is itself plant or animal.
- Modified food starch, where the starch itself is plant but the enzymes used to modify it are not always.
- Rennet in cheese, which can be animal, microbial or vegetable and is usually just called rennet.
The honest answer on this group is that you cannot tell from the packet. That is not you reading it wrong, it is a gap in what the label has to disclose. The manufacturer is the only source, and many will answer a direct question by email.
Only if dairy is one of your flags
Dairy carries a small amount of alpha-gal. Some people with alpha-gal react to it and many do not, which is why Opie treats it as a setting rather than a rule.
- Milk, cream, butter, cheese.
- Whey, casein, lactose, milk solids, milk powder.
Medicines and supplements
The active drug is almost never the problem. What catches people is what it is wrapped in and bulked out with, and that changes between brands of the same medicine.
- Capsule shells, which are frequently gelatin. The same drug is often available as a tablet or in a vegetarian capsule.
- Magnesium stearate and lactose as fillers.
- Gummy and chewable formats, which are usually gelatin.
- Heparin, which is porcine-derived, and some vaccines and surgical materials that contain gelatin or bovine tissue.
Do not stop taking something on the strength of this list. A pharmacist can check a specific product in about a minute and can usually suggest another brand of the same medicine. Skipping a medication you need is a bigger risk than the one you are trying to avoid.
Things that get listed and are not alpha-gal
These circulate on community lists, and it is worth knowing why they are there so you can decide for yourself rather than avoiding everything.
- Carmine and cochineal are from insects, not mammals.
- Carrageenan is seaweed. Some people report reacting to it and the research on why is unsettled, so it is worth tracking if you suspect it, but it is not a mammal ingredient.
- Xanthan, guar, locust bean and gellan gum are plant or microbial. Some people find they upset their stomach, which is a different problem from alpha-gal and worth not confusing with one.
Keeping these separate matters more than it looks. A list that puts seaweed in the same column as beef is a list you stop believing the first time one of its warnings turns out not to apply to you.
Where it hides besides meat, including the non-food things
Opie checks a label against its curated mammal list, and separately against the additives that can come from either source, which come back as worth asking about rather than as a finding. That list is not everything on this page: a checklist can raise a question the app has no entry for. It will not tell you a product is safe either way. A clean scan means it found nothing on a list, in the text it was given.