Pop tarts is a well-known brand for most Americans. It accompanied us through our childhood.
As time goes by, more and more things you have encountered, more and more things you have known. Some day, you choose to become a vegan.
You are not accepting all types of pop tarts. You hope to pick out pop tarts that are completely vegan even for the breakfast of your children and your partner.
At this time, you asked this question, are pop tarts vegan?
Let me answer you directly: No, pop tarts are not all vegan, and most of them are not.
Want to know which one is vegan? Please follow me to dive in.
Here is How I Figure it out
I compiled this form from the information on the pop tarts official website, a list of ingredients for all pop tarts products. It counts all types of pop tarts on sale currently, including favorite pop tarts and new pop tarts.
[table id=arepoptartsvegan responsive=stack/]
As we all know, milk and gelatin have been regarded as non-vegan. Therefore, we quickly checked and found that only three products up to the vegan standard.
Here it is:
- Pop-Tarts® Unfrosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon
- Pop-Tarts® Unfrosted Strawberry
- Pop-Tarts® Unfrosted Blueberry
There are no non-vegan flavors in the ingredients of the above three products.
Some Ingredients: Vegan or Non-vegan
For some extremely strict vegetarians, there’re some confusing ingredients in them that need to explain and make them clear.
Xanthan gum
Xanthan gum is produced by Xanthomonas campestris with carbohydrates as the main raw material (such as corn starch) through a fermentation process with a wide range of extracellular microorganisms Polysaccharides.
Many foods add xanthan gum as a stabilizer, emulsifier, suspending agent, thickener, and processing aid. It is widely used in salad dressings, bread, dairy products, frozen foods, beverages, condiments, brewing, confectionery, cakes, soups, and canned foods.
So, don’t worry, xanthan gum is completely vegetarian.
Palm Oil
Palm oil is tropical woody vegetable oil. It is currently the world’s largest variety of vegetable oil in terms of production, consumption, and international trade. It is called the “three major vegetable oils in the world” together with soybean oil and rapeseed oil. It has a history of being eaten for more than five thousand years.
Palm oil is squeezed from the palm fruit on the oil palm tree. The pulp and kernel produce palm oil and palm kernel oil respectively. The traditional concept of palm oil includes only the former.
So, on its own, palm oil is also completely vegetarian.
However, it must be mentioned that the uncontrolled production of palm oil in pursuit of economic benefits has destroyed the local natural environment and animal habitats. At the same time, it has also accelerated global warming.
Food Coloring
We noticed that all pop tarts have food coloring, which can make pop tarts look appetizing. But is the food coloring vegetarian? How is it made?
There are three different sources of food coloring, plants, animals, and synthetics.
Let’s take a look at what food coloring are contained in the three vegan pop tarts mentioned above.
Caramel color is a soluble food coloring that is produced by heating sugar, which is 100% vegan.
For Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2, their naming method tells us that they are artificially synthesized, and they are completely vegan.
Similar to palm oil, the exploitation of palm oil has caused some local animals to face more difficult situations, and the research and development process of artificial colors often involves some animal testings, and some artificial colors themselves are by-products of animal testings.
Summary
If you have questions about “Are pop tarts vegan” and want to know which pop tarts are vegan, I have checked it for you.
[table id=veganpoptarts responsive=stack/]
They don’t contain any animal ingredients at all and can be accepted by most vegetarians. For some extremely strict vegetarians, there are no pop tarts suitable for you currently, and you may need to find some alternatives.