Both children and adults alike love Pop-Tarts! The question arises, “Are Pop-Tarts Vegan?”. When you begin to follow a vegan lifestyle, it can be hard to indulge in the things you once did.
While most Pop-Tarts aren’t vegan, there are a few options that don’t contain any animal ingredients, right down to the food coloring!
Table of Contents
5 Non-Vegan Ingredients in Pop-Tarts
1. Gelatin
You may be surprised that your favorite morning treat has animal ingredients in them. By boiling animal skins, bones, and joints, you get gelatin – commonly used on pop-tarts to stick the frosting to the pastry.
2. Milk
There are dairy-free Pop-tart options out there, but can be hard to find. More often, Pop-Tarts contain Whey, milk chocolate or milk-derived natural flavors.
3. Eggs
Eggs aren’t a common ingredient in Pop-Tarts, however, you may spot egg whites as an ingredient in the cookie or cupcake flavors.
4. Carmine
A natural red food dye, carmine is made from crushed cochineal beetles. Although it sounds unappealing, you may think otherwise when you taste it in the Wild Berry Pop-Tarts.
5. Confectioner’s Glaze
Another insect ingredient, confectioner’s glaze comes from lac beetle excretions – often used to make a shiny coating. Most often found in Cherry Pop-Tarts, but no other flavors.
The 3 Vegan Pop-Tart Flavors
Yes, there are vegan Pop-Tart flavors, three to be exact. The flavors that are considered to be vegan are the unfrosted ones. That’s simply because the frosted ones have gelatin (animal skin/bones) and the unfrosted ones do not. The top vegan Pop-Tarts are:
- Unfrosted Strawberry
- Unfrosted Blueberry
- Unfrosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon
Controversial Ingredients in Pop-Tarts
Besides beetles, and animal skin, there are a few other controversial ingredients in Pop-Tarts. If you’re an extra picky vegan, or are particular about other ingredients, then brace yourself here.
1. Artificial Colors
Instead of using beetles, some Pop-Tarts also contain artificial colors, this includes red #40, blue #1, and blue #2. While these aren’t animal products or insects, they are a by-product of animal testing. While this is more widely accepted amongst vegans, some still stand strongly against it, for legitimate reasons.
Note: Choose the Unfrosted brown sugar cinnamon flavor, if you want to avoid artificial colors in Pop-Tarts.
2. Sugar
Often used to filter sugar and make it whiter, bone char from cattle is another controversial ingredient. It can be difficult to avoid even consuming bone char sugar as it is not often labelled on the package – however, some vegans do try to avoid refined sugar.
3. Palm Oil
This may be a surprise that even though palm oil is plant-based, its production can raise some ethical, environmental, and social challenges. Mainly, the deforestation for palm oil plantations directly destroys habitats and threatens the lives of different species, including the orangutan, the Sumatran Elephant, the Bornean Pygmy Elephant, the Sumatran Rhino, and the Sumatran Tiger.
4. Natural Flavors
There is only one true vegan variety of Pop-Tarts that contains natural flavors – Unfrosted Blueberry. However, being vegan and it being a true natural flavor is something that comes into question. According to the FDA, natural flavors mean the essential oil, the essence is extracted through the process of roasting or heating – meaning that natural flavors derive directly from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice.
Conclusion
If you’re a vegan and you’re ok with eating palm oil, added colors, and natural flavors, then go ahead and grab some unfrosted strawberry, unfrosted blueberry and unfrosted brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts.
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