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Surprising Accidentally Vegan Foods

Have you ever wondered what vegan junk food is available? As someone who has a limited diet, it is such a pleasure to find accidentally vegan foods in the wild. Of course, we all try to eat healthy (in theory), but sometimes it is so nice to find vegan junk food to enjoy. When I’m talking vegan junk food, I’m not thinking fruit leather or veggie straws; I’m thinking candy, cookies, and chips!

You might be asking yourself: Are Oreo’s Vegan? What about Pringles, Chocolate, or Cheetos? Can I eat Ritz crackers, red vines, or hot cocoa? I’m here to answer those questions and teach you how to find your own vegan junk food!

(The links below are affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more information.)

Where to find vegan snacks to buy?

Vegan snacks can be found anywhere that you are willing to look. Gas station stores, grocery stores, and convenience stores all have junk food for vegans, they just don’t know it.

As you get in the habit of reading labels and with a little bit of knowledge, you can find these accidentally vegan foods with ease.

Is It Vegan?

This is the most important questions. If you are just starting out as a vegan it can be scary or overwhelming to try to figure out if a food is vegan or not. Here are a few ways you can figure that out.

Check the front of the label.

Sometime the label itself will say “vegan”. Accidentally vegan products won’t have this on the label though (or they would be accidental, would they?)

Search on an app.

There are a few apps that are designed to let you know if a product is vegan. The Is It Vegan app does just this. It’s a free app where you can scan a bar code and find out if a product is vegan.

Read the ingredients on the back of the label.

The no-fail way to confirm a product is vegan is to check the ingredients on the label. See below for details about how to do this.

How do I read a label?

Before you purchase an accidentally vegan snack, you are going to want to read the label. Since these items are not intentionally vegan, they are not going to say “Vegan” on the front of the box to let you know they do not contain any animal products. You will have to read the boxes to find out.

As I browse the store, I often see items that I think (or hope) are vegan. When I read a label, I have a process for my due diligence. I find it the quickest way to figure out if a product is vegan. If it passes step 1, I go to step 2 and so on. Generally, this helps me avoid wasting my time deciphering all of the ingredients on a label.

Look over the box. My first step is always to read the front of the box. If it says milk or honey, I look no further and put it back on the shelf. This is not the type of item I’m looking for.

Some items are tricky though. For example, Bac-O Bits are bacon flavored with no meat or meat products. Read allergies. My next step is to check the allergy information on the back of the box. If there are eggs or milk in the product, it should be in the allergy section under the ingredients. Check ingredients. After I read the allergies, I check the ingredients. Some ingredients need some additional research because not all of the ingredients are easy to identify. Here are some to look out for.

Which ingredients do I need to look out for?

There are some ingredients in products that you might not realize are from an animal. While it would be nice if ingredients were labeled to easily identify where they come from, that is not the case. Here’s a great article about ingredients and foods to avoid on a vegan diet.

Ingredients to avoid:

Beeswax and Honey

Milk Byproducts, Casein, Whey, and L. Cysteine

Gelatin

Confectioner’s Glaze

Cochineal or Carmine

What is Vegan Junk Food?

While you still want to check ingredients just in case the company changed them, here are some great examples of vegan junk food:

Vegan Sweets:

Vegan Breakfast Cereal:

Vegan Salty Foods:

Vegan Candy:

Red Vines

Starburst (UK only, sorry United States)

Skittles

Sour Patch Kids

Airheads

Blow Pops

Dots

Dum-Dums

Fruit by the Foot

Jolly Ranches

Laffy Taffy

Lemonheads

Smarties

Sweedish Fish

Sweet Tarts

Vegan Drinks:

Vegan Restaurant Options:

This article has great information about how to order vegan at any restaurant.

Here’s a list of fantastic vegan options at fast food restaurants!

Final Thoughts About Vegan Junk Food

While it’s still important to eat a healthy well-balanced diet (and here are some great examples), there are plenty of easy options when you are just looking for something tasty and easy! So next time you are thinking: Are Oreos vegan? You know that the answer is a resounding, YES!

Which vegan junk food surprise you the most? Let me know in the comments.

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Vegan Junk Food: Are Oreos Vegan? and Other Questions