Sweets… mmm... nom nom nom.
Ok, I’m being serious now.
True or false: There’s no such thing as vegan sweets - False
All sweets are vegan – False
Vegan sweets are specialist – Hmm… sometimes
Vegan sweets are all expensive – False
Vegan sweets are hard to find – False
Vegan sweets are treats made without using anything from animals. That means no milk, no gelatine (which comes from animals), and no other animal ingredients. Instead, they're made with things like fruits, plant-based sugars, and other ingredients that come from plants. So what is it in sweets that can make them non-vegan? Gelatine, from cows, fish or pigs, is used in a lot of chewy sweets, think cola bottles and fruit pastilles. The gelatine is used to make them chewy.
Milk is used for flavour and texture and can be found in a lot of different sweets from boiled sweets to chewy bars and, obviously, chocolate.
Shellac is made using the lac bug, the beetles make a crusty substance out of the food that they eat, it’s kind of like bug poo, that they leave on trees as they crawl around, this is scraped up and used to make shellac which is used to make things hard and shiny. In sweets it’s used to make crispy coatings, the problem is that the bugs are often killed in the process. Not good.
Honey, it’s sweet and sticky but the bees make it for themselves, not for us. Can imagine how mad you’d be if you’d been out working hard all day to make food for you and your family then someone else came along and took it all, and they don’t even say thank you? Then they put your food in a pot and sell it to make money and you don’t get anything. Really not good.
There are more animal derived ingredients used in sweets, but you get the idea. Vegan sweets can be bought in most shops, you just need to know which ones are vegan friendly and it’s not always the ones that are marked as vegan. This is just of a few of the vegan friendly sweets available, there are loads more, but once you know what to look for they are easy to find.
Skittles – Skittles are pretty much just sugar. There are a few flavourings and colours in them, but they're pretty close to 100% sugar, no animals involved.
Flying Saucers – Rice paper and sherbet. I’ve not found a sherbet that wasn’t vegan so sherbet fountains are good too, but always check just in case the ingredients have been changed.
Starburst – These used to be called Opal Fruits but that was a long time ago, anyway, sugar, fruit juice and colours, there’s not much more in them than that. Oh, btw, just because they have fruit juice in them does not mean that they count as once of your fruit portions.
Haribo Sour Strips – These chewy ribbons are usually vegan regardless of who they are made by. I’ve found supermarket own brand sour strips that were vegan friendly.
Love Hearts and Jelly Tots are also vegan friendly. There are some sweets that are especially made for vegans such as Candy Kittens and Jealous Sweets, but they can be expensive and hard to find, but with all of these other sweets to choose from we don’t need to worry.
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