Most big U.S. sodas are vegan by their ingredients. Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero Sugar, Pepsi Zero Sugar, Sprite, Fanta Orange, Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper, A&W, and Barq's list no animal ingredients on their current U.S. labels. We checked those labels in September 2026.

There are two real catches. Some sodas use cane sugar, and cane sugar can be filtered through bone char. And a few drinks sold in the U.K. have had animal ingredients that the U.S. versions do not. Both are covered below, drink by drink.

Quick answers for the biggest sodas

"Vegan by ingredients" means nothing on the label comes from an animal. It does not tell you how the sugar was processed, and it does not cover animal testing.

Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Sprite, and Fanta

Coca-Cola answers the question itself. Its FAQ says, "Coca-Cola does not contain any ingredients derived from animal sources and can be included in a vegetarian or vegan diet." The U.S. label lists carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors, and caffeine.

Diet Coke replaces the corn syrup with aspartame. Aspartame is made in a factory, not from an animal, so the drink has no sugar question at all. Our Diet Coke vegan guide goes through each ingredient.

Coke Zero Sugar uses aspartame and acesulfame potassium, plus stevia extract, which comes from a plant. If you want to know more about that sweetener, see our guide to stevia.

Sprite has one of the shortest labels in the soda aisle: carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, natural flavors, sodium citrate, and sodium benzoate. Nothing on that list comes from an animal. There is more in our full Sprite breakdown.

Fanta Orange has one ingredient people ask about: glycerol ester of rosin. It is made by reacting wood rosin, often from aged pine stumps, with glycerin. Citrus sodas use it to keep the flavor oils mixed in, and it is one of the alternatives to brominated vegetable oil. Glycerin can come from plants or animals, and the label does not say which. Coca-Cola's U.S. page lists no animal ingredients for Fanta.

An earlier version of this guide said some U.K. Fanta flavors used fish gelatin. We could not find a source for that. The drinks on record are other U.K. brands. They are in the section on ingredients to watch for, below.

Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Mountain Dew

PepsiCo uses a strict definition for its own vegan label. It defines a vegan product as one that "does not contain any ingredients or processing aids sourced from, produced or processed by animals." Its list of things that rule a product out includes gelatin, milk, honey, and "sugar refined with animal bone char."

Regular Pepsi lists carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, sugar, phosphoric acid, caffeine, citric acid, and natural flavors. None of those comes from an animal. The sugar is the open question. PETA's Caring Consumer site says Pepsi "does not directly test on animals or use animal-derived ingredients in its formula." On a cane sugar version of Pepsi, though, PETA says, "No, it doesn't appear that Pepsi is vegan because the sugar is processed using bone char."

Pepsi Zero Sugar avoids the question. Its label lists carbonated water, caramel color, phosphoric acid, aspartame, natural flavor, acesulfame potassium, and citric acid.

Diet Pepsi in the U.S. lists no animal ingredients either. The U.K. is different. In 2017, PepsiCo said U.K. Diet Pepsi contains "traces of ingredients that are not suitable for people following a vegan diet." Its U.K. bottler, Britvic, said it did not know which ingredient was the problem, because it was part of a proprietary formula. That report came up again in a March 2026 news story. We could not confirm whether the U.K. recipe has changed since. Our Diet Pepsi vegan guide has the U.S. ingredient list.

Mountain Dew lists carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, orange juice concentrate, citric acid, natural flavors, sodium benzoate, caffeine, sodium citrate, erythorbic acid, gum arabic, EDTA, and Yellow 5. Older articles mention brominated vegetable oil in Mountain Dew. That was a plant oil, not an animal product, and the FDA revoked its approval for food. The rule took effect on August 2, 2024. The current label does not list it.

Dr Pepper, root beer, and ginger ale

PETA's Caring Consumer page lists Dr Pepper's ingredients as carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural and artificial flavors, sodium benzoate, and caffeine. Nothing there comes from an animal. Versions sold as made with real sugar use cane sugar instead, so the bone char question applies to those. Our complete Dr Pepper vegan guide covers the other flavors.

PETA's answer on A&W is short: "Yes! A&W Root Beer is a vegan-friendly brand." Its foam comes partly from quillaia extract, which is taken from the bark of a tree. PETA's ingredient list shows cane sugar only in the A&W fountain version. The other regular versions use high fructose corn syrup.

Barq's Root Beer lists carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, sodium benzoate, citric acid, caffeine, flavors, and acacia, a gum from a tree.

7UP, Sunkist, and Canada Dry Ginger Ale are all made by Keurig Dr Pepper. Their websites blocked our checks this month, so we could not read the current labels. Older published labels show no animal ingredients for any of the three. If you want to be sure, check the can.

The sugar question: bone char

This is where vegans disagree. PETA explains that bone char is "widely used by the sugar industry as a decolorizing filter" for cane sugar. Bone char is made from animal bones. Beet sugar, PETA says, "never involves the use of bone char." Soda makers almost never say which sugar they use or how it was filtered.

Most regular U.S. sodas are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, which is made from corn. Cane sugar shows up in some fountain drinks, in versions sold as made with real sugar, and in many craft sodas. On one vegan forum thread about craft sodas, members said they choose drinks where "buying does not lead to avoidable animal suffering." That is a stricter test than an ingredient check, and it is a personal call.

Diet and zero sugar sodas skip the question. They are sweetened with aspartame, acesulfame potassium, or stevia instead of sugar.

Ingredients to watch for in drinks

None of the major U.S. sodas above lists these, but they do turn up in other drinks. Our guide to reading product labels as a vegan covers the same approach for food.

Carmine, also called cochineal extract, is a red dye made from insects. Since January 5, 2011, the FDA has required it to be named on food labels, so you can find it by reading the ingredients. Red 40 is a synthetic dye and does not come from insects.

Beta carotene is an orange color. In some drinks it has been mixed with fish gelatin to keep it stable. In 2012 the Vegetarian Resource Group reported that Coca-Cola U.K. used gelatin-stabilized beta carotene in Lilt, Lilt Zero, Kia-Ora Orange Squash, and Schweppes Orange Squash. The same report said Coca-Cola USA confirmed its U.S. beta carotene drink "does not have the fish gelatin." That report is from 2012, so read current U.K. labels.

Vitamin D3 is added to some fortified drinks. PETA's ingredient list says, "Vitamin D2 is typically vegan. Vitamin D3 may be from an animal source."

Natural flavors are the hardest to judge. The FDA definition covers flavors taken from fruit, spices, and other plants, and also from "meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products." The label will not tell you which. For Coca-Cola, the company's statement about animal sources settles it. For smaller brands, you have to ask the maker.

Honey is the last one. PepsiCo's own vegan rules list it as an ingredient that rules a product out.

Energy drinks, sports drinks, and milk drinks

We did not recheck energy drinks, sports drinks, or milk drinks for this update, so this page gives no verdicts on them. Our separate guides cover each one:

• Monster: our Monster Energy vegan guide.
• Taurine: our guide to taurine in energy drinks.
• Gatorade: our deep dive on Gatorade.
• Nesquik: our Nesquik vegan guide.
• Boba: our boba tea vegan guide.

Soft drink questions

Is Coca-Cola vegan?

Yes. Coca-Cola's own FAQ says the drink contains no ingredients from animal sources.

Is Diet Coke vegan?

Yes. It is sweetened with aspartame and lists no animal ingredients. See our full Diet Coke breakdown.

Is Pepsi vegan?

Pepsi has no animal ingredients. The label also lists sugar, and we found no PepsiCo statement on how that sugar is filtered. PETA says a cane sugar version of Pepsi is not vegan because its sugar is processed with bone char. If that matters to you, Pepsi Zero Sugar has no sugar.

Are energy drinks vegan?

We did not recheck them for this update. Start with our Monster Energy vegan guide and our article on whether taurine is vegan.

Is ginger ale vegan?

Canada Dry's older labels show no animal ingredients, but we could not load its current label this month. Check the can if you want to be sure.

Sources

• Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola Original, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Sprite, Fanta, and Barq's U.S. product pages. Accessed September 28, 2026. coca-cola.com.
• Coca-Cola. "Is Coca-Cola vegan?" FAQ. Accessed September 28, 2026. coca-cola.com.
• PepsiCo. Vegan and vegetarian product facts. Accessed September 28, 2026. pepsicoproductfacts.com.
• PETA Caring Consumer. Pepsi. Accessed September 28, 2026. caringconsumer.com.
• PETA Caring Consumer. Dr Pepper. Accessed September 28, 2026. caringconsumer.com.
• PETA Caring Consumer. A&W Root Beer. Accessed September 28, 2026. caringconsumer.com.
• PETA. "Are Animal Ingredients Included in White Sugar?" Accessed September 28, 2026. peta.org.
• PETA. "Animal-Derived Ingredients List." Accessed September 28, 2026. peta.org.
• Vegetarian Resource Group. "Beta Carotene in U.S. Beverages Not Stabilized with Gelatin." February 15, 2012. vrg.org.
• AOL. "Popular diet soda isn't vegan." March 29, 2026. aol.com.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "FDA Revokes Regulation Allowing the Use of Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO) in Food." July 2024. fda.gov.
• 21 CFR 101.22(a)(3), definition of natural flavor. Accessed September 28, 2026. law.cornell.edu.
• FDA Law Blog. "FDA Requires Label Declaration of Cochineal Extract and Carmine on All Foods and Cosmetics." January 2009. thefdalawblog.com.
• Wikipedia. "Glyceryl abietate." Accessed September 28, 2026. wikipedia.org.
• Wikipedia. "Pepsi," "Diet Pepsi," "Pepsi Zero Sugar," and "Mountain Dew," ingredient lists cited from product labels. Accessed September 28, 2026. wikipedia.org.
• Vegan Forum. "Bone char free vegan craft soda finds." Accessed September 28, 2026. veganforum.org.