Somehow my in-head dictionary includes "often derogatory" in there. As in it is the thing that the in-group uses to exclude the out-group. So eating meat would be a shibboleth to vegans.
No, that's backwards. A shibboleth is a way for people to recognize members of their group. If someone doesn't do it (or does it wrong as per the original example) then they are not a member of the group.