A lot of everyday candy is vegan. Skittles, Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish, Dum Dums, Dots, Airheads, and Jolly Rancher hard candy all leave out gelatin and other animal ingredients in their current U.S. recipes. In September 2026 we checked all 49 candies on this list against current ingredient labels. 34 passed, 11 need a closer look at the label, and 4 came off the list.
Recipes change, and the same candy can have a different recipe in another country. Everything below is for the U.S. version unless we say otherwise. Some shops group their vegan candy on one page, which helps, but the ingredient list on the bag you are holding is the final word. For mints, see our separate guide to vegan peppermints.
What makes candy not vegan
Most non-vegan candy fails on one of six ingredients. Two come from farm animals, two come from insects, and two come from bees.
| Ingredient | What it is | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Gelatin | A protein made by boiling skin, tendons, ligaments, or bones, usually from cows or pigs (PETA) | Gummy bears, Starburst, candy corn |
| Confectioner's glaze (shellac) | A resin made by the lac insect (Vegetarian Resource Group) | Shiny coatings, such as the one on candy corn |
| Carmine or cochineal extract | A red dye from crushed female cochineal insects (PETA) | Red and pink candy, some Tic Tac flavors |
| Beeswax | Wax from melted honeycomb (PETA) | Haribo Goldbears |
| Honey | Made by bees | Candy corn |
| Milk, butter, or whey | Dairy | Milk chocolate, Cracker Jack, Oreo Chocolate Cones |
Carmine is the easiest one to catch. Since January 5, 2011, the FDA has required food labels to name cochineal extract and carmine in the ingredient list. Red 40 is a different thing. It is a synthetic dye, not an insect product.
Gelatin, shellac, and beeswax show up in the ingredient list too. The trouble is that shoppers read the front of the bag, not the back. A candy that looks like it should be fine, like a gummy bear, is often the one with gelatin in it.
You can check most snacks the same way. The same label reading answers Are Cool Ranch Doritos Vegan, and it works for anything else in the snack aisle.
Vegan hard candy and lollipops
| Candy | What the label shows |
|---|---|
| Brach's Cinnamon Hard Candy* | Corn syrup, sugar, flavors, and dyes. No gelatin. |
| Brach's Root Beer Barrels* | Sugar, corn syrup, natural flavor, and dyes. No gelatin. |
| Brach's Star Brites | Corn syrup, sugar, peppermint oil, and dyes. No gelatin or glaze. |
| Charm's Sweet Pops | Sugar, corn syrup, citric acid, flavors, and colors including turmeric. |
| Dum Dums | Sugar, corn syrup, acids, salt, flavor, and color. Dum Dums are also on PETA's list of accidentally vegan foods. |
| Ferrara Atomic Fireballs | Sugar, corn starch, flavor, and dye, with carnauba wax, a wax from a palm plant, instead of beeswax or shellac. |
| Jolly Rancher Hard Candy | Sugar, corn syrup, corn starch, acids, flavors, and color. No gelatin or milk. |
| Smartie's (U.S. version)* | Dextrose, citric acid, flavors, and colors. The Smarties company says its U.S. candy is vegan. |
| Zotz | Sugar, glucose syrup, acids, baking soda, flavors, and colors. No gelatin or dairy. |
| YumEarth Organic Lollipops | Organic cane sugar, brown rice syrup, fruit and vegetable colors. YumEarth calls these vegan but does not name an outside certifier. |
An asterisk (*) marks candy that our older version of this list called free of refined sugar and palm oil. That mark did not hold up for most of them. The section on sugar and palm oil below explains what is known.
Vegan gummies, chews, and sour candy
Gummy candy is where most people get caught, because the classic gummy bear is made with gelatin. The candies below set with corn starch or pectin instead.
| Candy | What the label shows |
|---|---|
| Airheads | Sugar, corn syrup, maltodextrin, flavors, and colors. No gelatin or dairy. |
| Brach's Mandarin Orange Slices | Set with modified corn starch, not gelatin. |
| Dots | Corn syrup, sugar, and modified food starch. No gelatin. |
| Haribo Sour S'ghetti Gummi Candy | The U.S. version uses carnauba wax and no gelatin or beeswax. Haribo's Goldbears are different (see below). |
| Jujyfruits | Corn syrup, starch, mineral oil, and carnauba wax. No gelatin. |
| Sour Patch Kids | Sugar, invert sugar, corn syrup, modified corn starch, and acids. No gelatin. |
| Swedish Fish | Sugar, corn syrup, modified corn starch, mineral oil, and carnauba wax. No gelatin. |
| Skittles (original) | The maker took gelatin out of the recipe in early 2009, and current labels still show none. Skittles Gummies are a separate product, so check that bag on its own. |
| Chick-O-Sticks | Cane sugar, corn syrup, peanut butter, and toasted coconut. No gelatin or dairy. |
| SmartSweets | Most lines use plant-based gelling agents. The brand's own FAQ says its Gummy Worms and Sour Gummy Worms contain gelatin, so skip those two. |
| Surf Sweets Organic Fruity Bears | Set with pectin, not gelatin. |
Vegan chocolate
Dark chocolate is often vegan because cacao, sugar, and cocoa butter all come from plants. The catch is milk. Some dark bars add milk, and some, like Lindt, warn that they may contain traces of milk from the factory.
| Chocolate | What the label shows |
|---|---|
| Chocolove Dark Chocolate Bar | The 55% dark bar lists cocoa, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, and vanilla. Check the label on other Chocolove bars. |
| Landgarten Amarena Cherries in Dark Chocolate* | All four flavors: dark chocolate made from cocoa, cane sugar, and cocoa butter, with a gum arabic glaze. No milk. We found no honey in the raspberry version, even though one reseller listing mentioned it. The landgarten.co.uk site gave a security error when we checked. U.K. and EU shops still sell these. |
| Landgarten Amarena Ginger in Dark Chocolate* | |
| Landgarten Organic Pumpkin-Snack Dark Chocolate* | |
| Landgarten Raspberries in Dark Chocolate* | |
| Lindt Excellence Cocoa Bars (70+% cocoa) | Chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, and vanilla. Lindt says the bars may contain traces of milk from the factory. |
| Whole Foods Organic Chocolate Truffles | The dark truffles list cocoa, coconut oil, cane sugar, and cocoa butter. A seasonal item, so check the box you find. |
| Unreal Dark Chocolate Gems | Certified Vegan by Vegan Action, according to Unreal. |
| Hu Chocolate Bars | The dark bars list cacao, coconut sugar, and cocoa butter only. Check the label on any other Hu product. |
| Justin's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups | No milk in the ingredients. The product page shows no vegan certification mark. |
Our list of vegan dark chocolate brands covers more bars.
Vegan cookies and baked snacks
| Snack | What the label shows |
|---|---|
| Nabisco Ginger Snaps | Wheat flour, sugar, molasses, soybean oil, and ginger. We found this list in a nutrition database, so confirm it on the box. |
| Nature's Path Deep Chocolate Signature Cookies | Organic flour, cane sugar, palm oil, and cocoa. Labeled non-dairy. |
| Nature’s Path Lemon Poppy Signature Series Cookies | Organic flour, cane sugar, palm oil, lemon flavor, and poppy seeds. No dairy or eggs. |
| Rip Van Dark Chocolate Wafers | Palm fruit oil, wheat flour, beet and cane fiber, cocoa, chocolate (sugar and chocolate), canola lecithin, coconut oil, and stevia. Rip Van labels them vegan. |
Meal delivery services are another place to find vegan snacks. One example is vegan snacks from Ideal Nutrition.
Check the label on these
These candies do not list gelatin or milk, but each one has an ingredient that could come from an animal, or we could not find the current recipe. PETA's list of animal-derived ingredients says glycerin is "a byproduct of soap manufacture (normally uses animal fat)" and lists monoglycerides as "from animal fat," with vegetable versions as the alternative. Makers rarely say which kind they use.
| Candy | Why to check |
|---|---|
| Big League Chew Bubble Gum | Gum base and glycerol. The maker does not say where either comes from. |
| Cry Baby Candy* | Calcium stearate. PETA says stearic acid can come from animal fat or from plants, and the maker does not say which. |
| Ferrara Chocolate Wafer Swirls | Amazon lists it as currently unavailable, and Ferrara has no current ingredient list online. If you find a package, read it before you buy. Rip Van Dark Chocolate Wafers, in the cookie table above, are a labeled vegan swap. |
| Fruit by the Foot* | Monoglycerides and "natural flavor," with no source given for either. |
| Hubba Bubba Gum | Gum base and glycerol, sources not given. |
| Jolly Rancher Lollipops | The hard lollipops we checked show no animal ingredients, but we found that list only on a retailer page. Jolly Rancher also sells other lollipop and gummy products with different recipes. |
| Joyva Chocolate Covered Orange Ring Gels | The jelly is set with agar, which comes from seaweed. Joyva's page does not say whether the dark chocolate coating contains milk. |
| Joyva Chocolate Covered Raspberry Ring Gels | |
| Mary Jane Candy | Mono and diglycerides, sources not given. Necco closed in 2018, and Atkinson Candy Company has made Mary Janes since 2020. |
| Nature’s Path Ginger Spice Signature Series Cookies | We could not find this cookie in Nature's Path's current lineup. It may be discontinued or renamed. |
| Tic Tac Mints | Depends on the flavor. Some flavors use carmine or shellac, and the Candy Cane flavor contains dairy. |
Taken off the list
Four candies from our old list are gone. Two are not vegan, and two are no longer made.
- Cracker Jacks: not vegan. The company's own FAQ says, "Currently, there are no Cracker Jack products that are classified as vegan."
- Nabisco Oreo Chocolate Cones: not vegan. Mondelez lists milk in the chocolate coating, even though regular Oreo cookies have no milk in the ingredients.
- Jujubes: no longer made. Two brand history sites say Jujubes left production around 2022 or 2023, and Ferrara no longer lists them. (Jujyfruits are still sold.)
- Super Bubble Bubble Gum: no longer made. A Ferrara spokesman told Food Dive in January 2024, "We have made the difficult decision to sunset Fruit Stripe Gum and Super Bubble."
Popular candy that is not vegan
These three popular candies still use animal ingredients in 2026.
Starburst Original Fruit Chews list gelatin on the current U.S. label. Skittles, made by the same company, dropped gelatin in 2009. Starburst did not.
Haribo Goldbears, the classic gummy bears, list gelatin plus white and yellow beeswax. Haribo's Sour S'ghetti is fine, so read each Haribo bag on its own.
Brach's Classic Candy Corn has three of the ingredients from the table at the top: confectioner's glaze, gelatin, and honey.
Sugar, palm oil, and dyes
These three are where vegans disagree. None of them is an animal ingredient, so most vegans eat candy that contains them. Some do not.
Sugar is the big one. PETA explains that bone char, which is made from animal bones, "is widely used by the sugar industry as a decolorizing filter" for cane sugar. Beet sugar, PETA says, "never involves the use of bone char." Candy makers almost never say which sugar they use, or how it was filtered. Smarties are sweetened with dextrose, a sugar made from corn, so the cane sugar question does not come up.
Palm oil is a plant oil, so it is vegan by ingredients. Some vegans avoid it for environmental reasons. Fruit by the Foot, for example, lists both sugar and palm oil. That is why the asterisk from our old list did not hold up.
Synthetic dyes like Red 40 do not come from animals. The objection PETA raises is that FD&C and D&C colors are "continuously tested on animals." Whether that rules a candy out is a personal call.
PETA itself warns against going too far. Its note on small amounts of animal products says the goal is "to help animals and reduce suffering," and not to refuse "an otherwise vegan food because it has 0.001 grams of monoglycerides that may possibly be animal-derived."
Vegan certification logos
A vegan logo on the package saves you from reading every line. Two groups run the most common ones.
Vegan Action runs the Certified Vegan logo in the U.S. It describes the logo as a registered trademark "for products that do not contain animal products or byproducts and that have not been tested on animals." Unreal and Endangered Species Chocolate both carry it.
The Vegan Society in the U.K. runs the Vegan Trademark. The Society calls it "an internationally recognised standard for products that are free of all animal use, in ingredients and testing."
No logo does not mean not vegan. Most candies on this list have no logo at all. It only means you have to read the ingredients yourself.
Vegan candy questions
Which candy has no gelatin?
Every candy in the four vegan tables above is gelatin-free by its current label. For gummies, look for corn starch, pectin, or agar in the ingredients instead of gelatin.
Are Skittles vegan?
Original U.S. Skittles have had no gelatin since 2009. Our full Skittles vegan breakdown goes into more detail.
Are Starburst vegan?
No. The current U.S. Starburst Original label lists gelatin.
Is Red 40 vegan?
Red 40 is not made from animals. Some vegans avoid it because synthetic dyes are tested on animals. Carmine is the red dye that comes from insects.
Are PEZ, Kit Kats, and other big brands vegan?
Each one needs its own label check. See Is PEZ Candy Vegan and our breakdown of whether Kit Kats are vegan. Our is it vegan posts cover many more single products.
As an Amazon Associate, Everything Vegan earns from qualifying purchases made through the Amazon links on this page.
Sources
- PETA. "What Is Gelatin Made Of?" Accessed September 28, 2026. peta.org.
- 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.
- PETA. "A Note About Small Amounts of Animal Products in Foods." Accessed September 28, 2026. peta.org.
- Vegetarian Resource Group. "Q&A on Shellac." November 30, 2010. vrg.org.
- Vegetarian Resource Group. "New Formulation Skittles Are Gelatin-Free." December 30, 2010. vrg.org.
- FDA Law Blog. "FDA Requires Label Declaration of Cochineal Extract and Carmine on All Foods and Cosmetics." January 2009. thefdalawblog.com.
- Starburst. Original Fruit Chews ingredients. Accessed September 28, 2026. starburst.com.
- Haribo. Goldbears ingredients. Accessed September 28, 2026. haribo.com.
- Brach's. Classic Candy Corn ingredients. Accessed September 28, 2026. brachs.com.
- Cracker Jack. "Are Cracker Jack Vegan?" Accessed September 28, 2026. crackerjack.com.
- Food Dive. "Ferrara discontinues Fruit Stripe and Super Bubble gums." January 16, 2024. fooddive.com.
- Unreal. FAQ. Accessed September 28, 2026. unrealsnacks.com.
- Justin's. Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups. Accessed September 28, 2026. justins.com.
- YumEarth. Vegan candy collection. Accessed September 28, 2026. yumearth.com.
- Rip Van. Dark Chocolate Wafers product page. Accessed September 28, 2026. ripvan.com.
- Vegan Action. Certification. Accessed September 28, 2026. vegan.org.
- The Vegan Society. Vegan Trademark search. Accessed September 28, 2026. vegansociety.com.