Are Sour Patch Kids Vegan?

For vegans hoping to enjoy a soft and chewy candy, ingredients matter. That’s because many gummies contain gelatin, a byproduct of the meat industry that gives treats their toothy texture. Luckily, almost all Sour Patch Kids candies are vegan-friendly.

Sour Patch Kids also offers non-vegan cookies, yogurt, and ice cream (as well as vegan-friendly energy drink mixes)—but here, we focus on their sweet and sour classic candies. Find out what makes your lips pucker and your taste buds drool in this guide to vegan Sour Patch Kids.

Why Sour Patch Kids Are Vegan 

Since Sour Patch Kids don’t contain gelatin, the only vegan-questionable ingredient is sugar, which strict vegans evaluate based on processing. Otherwise, the natural and artificial flavors, colors, and texturizers are all plant-based or were created synthetically in a lab. 

Sugar

The first ingredient in Sour Patch Kids is labeled “sugar,” which likely means it's a mix of beet and cane sugar. While vegan-friendly beet sugar transforms from vegetable to table sugar in a single process at a single refinery; cane sugar is secondarily processed with animal bone char to whiten the crystals.

Foods that don’t elucidate the sugar source generally contain both vegan beet sugar and non-vegan cane sugar. For some strict plant-based eaters, this disqualifies Sour Patch Kids as vegan-friendly.

Sour Patch Kids also contain invert sugar, a sweetener common in candies and drinks because of its smooth texture and water solubility. Invert sugar is table sugar that has had the bonds between the glucose and fructose molecules broken through a chemical reaction known as hydrolysis.

Natural and Artificial Flavors

According to federal law, natural flavors can be derived from plants, fungi, or animal products that have been heated to extract their essential compounds. In contrast, artificial flavors refer to products synthesized from other chemicals and not directly derived from animal products, fungi, or plants.

Given the fruity flavors of Sour Patch Kids, the natural and artificial flavors do not contain animal products, but they may have been derived from petroleum, the burning and extraction of which is a leading cause of global warming.

Tartaric Acid

An organic acid found naturally in grapes, citrus fruits, bananas, and tamarinds, tartaric acid gives Sour Patch Kids their sour kick. This ingredient may seem unfamiliar, but you’ve likely encountered the salt of tartaric acid, better known as cream of tartar. When mixed with baking soda, tartaric acid becomes baking powder—a common leavening agent.

Citric Acid

Citric acid is used in food as both a preservative and a natural flavor. This colorless, weak organic acid occurs naturally in citrus fruits like lemons and limes and has a pH level between 3 and 6.

Sodium Citrate

Another sour flavoring ingredient, sodium citrate is the salt of citric acid. Sodium citrate can also be used as a preservative. 

Colors

As the name implies, most artificial colors do not come from natural sources, and they are often petroleum-derived. For environmental vegans, that may be enough to pass on foods with coloring.

The food whitener titanium dioxide is also listed in Sour Patch Kids’ color. This food additive has been deemed safe by the FDA, but a 2021 study out of the U.K. concluded titanium dioxide is not safe for consumption.

Carnauba Wax

A hard, plant-based wax derived from Brazilian palm trees, carnauba wax is vegan. However, carnauba wax has sustainability concerns because the extraction of the wax can cause habitat destruction for native wildlife and deforestation.

Gum Arabic

Gum arabic only appears in Sour Patch Kids’ non-vegan jelly beans. This binding agent gives candies and confectionery treats their texture, sometimes in the place of gelatin.

When Sour Patch Kids Are Not Vegan 

Just one variety of Sour Patch Kids candies contains animal products: watermelon jelly beans. Other Sour Patch Kids products (yogurt, ice cream, and cookies) contain non-vegan ingredients. 

Gelatin

Found in Sour Patch Kids yogurt, gelatin is the primary protein in animal skin, bones, and connective tissues. Gelatin comes from the partial hydrolysis of collagen found in remnants from the beef and pork industries. It commonly provides foods like gummy candies, marshmallows, and desserts with a proper mouthfeel.

Beeswax

Beeswax is excreted from the glands of female worker bees and harvested alongside its co-product, honey. A controversial food in vegan circles, many vegans refrain from beeswax and honey because they view these products as the result of forced animal labor. For other vegans, the fact that 35% of the world’s food supply relies on bee pollination means they make exceptions for these animal products.

Confectioner’s Glaze

Like beeswax, the confectioner’s glaze is made by another small animal: the lac insect. These bugs excrete a resin that is then scraped off the trees where they reside. During harvesting, lac insects are both intentionally and unintentionally killed.

Combined with alcohol, the resin creates edible shellac, which gives foods a glossy top coat. Research estimates that it takes about 50,000 lac bugs to produce 1 kilogram of edible shellac.

Vegan Sour Patch Kids Varieties

If sugar processing doesn’t concern you, then all the flavors of Sour Patch Kids’ classic sugar-crusted sweets are vegan-friendly. None of these varieties contain gelatin or other animal products. This is true for Sour Patch Kids’ energy drink mixes as well. 

• Original 
• Watermelon
• Berries
• Strawberry
• Just Blue Raspberry
• Crush Soda Fruit Mix
• Heads, 2 Flavors in One
• Extreme
• Big Kids
• Bunnies Candy, Easter Edition
• Bites Original
• Bites Watermelon
• GHOST BCAA x Sour Patch Kids Watermelon Energy Drink Mix
• GHOST Legend x Sour Patch Kids Redberry Energy Drink Mix

Non-Vegan Sour Patch Kids Varieties

Alas, Sour Patch Kids’ jelly beans contain several non-vegan ingredients. The cookies, yogurt, and ice cream contain more obvious non-vegan ingredients. 

• Watermelon Jelly Beans
• Yoplait Sour Patch Kids Go-Gurt (both flavors contains milk and gelatin)
• Light Ice Cream & Sorbet (contains milk and whey)