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Just to clarify, I am from the UK and so I am talking about UK Marmite:

Marmite pot[1]

As you can see from the pot, they say it's vegetarian, but it's yeast extract, so does that mean it's not vegan? Does yeast count as an animal product?

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Yes, Marmite is vegan.

Yeast is a type of microfungi and as such is not considered non-vegan or an animal product, just like any other kind of mushroom.

Regarding yeast and veganism, there are already some answers in this thread.

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    I've been asked before "but isn't it beef?" or "isn't it the same as/same company as Bovril?". For the benefit of anyone wondering that, Bovril is indeed beef, and no connection to Marmite other than appearance.
    – David S
    Mar 29, 2017 at 21:00
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    @DavidS in fact for a while Bovril was vegetarian (wikipedia)!
    – Chris H
    Apr 13, 2017 at 10:39
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    @ChrisH My mind is blown.
    – David S
    Apr 13, 2017 at 12:24
  • When Bovril returned to using beef, I saw a customer question about whether they would continue the vegetarian version. They said that they would not and suggested Marmite.
    – badjohn
    Jan 4, 2019 at 13:53
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Marmite is vegan. However, if you are vegan because of the animal rights side of things, you should take into consideration that it is made by Unilever and they are heavily involved in animal testing. Most of the main supermarkets do a generic brand, all of which taste no different.

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Marmite, along with a number of other plant based food products, are owned by Unilever, one of the biggest animal testing companies in the world. To buy their products is to condone the torture and murder of animals experimented on and therefore Marmite is not Vegan. Veganism isn't a diet, it's to live your life not exploiting animals in any capacity as far as that is practically possible.

Other yeast extracts are available and are better value.

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    Hello Susan, welcome to Vegetarianism SE. While your answer raises an interesting point, the exact same point has already been raised in a different answer more than a year ago. Also, as said answer shows, there are ways of doing that without gatekeeping. Veganism is many things to many people and this site aims to cater for all of them.
    – Alexander Rossa
    Feb 7, 2019 at 12:41

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