Vegan Candies

From Philosophical Vegan Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Vegans don't have a very limiting choice for candies anymore, having plenty of options to choose from.
Some of the most favorite brands in the US include https://www.nowheychocolate.com/ , https://gomaxgofoods.com/ , and https://enjoylifefoods.com/collections/vegan?vegan.
And, of course, vegan chocolate bars can be found almost everywhere--be it pure cacao, or with a bit of sugar and/or plant milk added. It should be also pretty easy to find a few vegan candy options in every store with a large enough array of candies to choose from, even if not advertised as vegan, by simply looking at the ingredients.
Common vegan candies include Twizzlers, Skittles, Hubba Bubba Chewing Gum, Jolly Ranchers (standard flavors), Blow Pop Lollipops, Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids, and chocolate bars that don't contain dairy.

While it would be preferable to buy fully vegan candies, trace animal products found in candies are not something to obsess over, and are probably going to make a very small impact.
When there is no other available candy option besides non-vegan ones with trace animal products, advocating for no candy altogether can make veganism seem impossible. This doesn't mean you should avoid caring to pick the vegan candies at the store that are right next to the non-vegan ones, but that if the only available candies that are closest to being vegan contain a little bit of honey, it would be counterproductive to advocate for others not to buy them.

Below is a list of non-vegan ingredients:

  • Bees wax, E901 (often used in chewy candies, such as gummy bears and jelly beans)
  • Carmine, E120 (red food coloring, made from crushed-up bugs after drying them alive in the sun, requiring around 70'000 bugs for 1 pound of it)
  • Casein (found in dairy milk)
  • Dairy milk (often used in chocolate, and other candies)
  • Gelatin/e, E441, E485 (extracted from animals, used in many of the chewy candies, such as gummy bears)
  • Honey
  • Lactitol, E922 (a sweetener derived from dairy milk)
  • Lactose (sugar found in dairy milk)
  • Powdered milk/milk powder
  • Shellac, E904 (resin derived from insects, killing hundreds of thousands of insects for 1 kg of shellac, used for a shiny glaze)
  • Stearic acid, E570 (can also be vegan, found both in animal and plant fats, used seldomly in candies, such as some mint-tasting ones)