Much of the Halloween candy that gets handed out to trick-or-treaters contains milk products or gelatin. The root of the problem is the chocolate that goes into mass-market Halloween candy is never the premium stuff. And low-end chocolate is rarely vegan since milk chocolate is cheaper than dark chocolate.
The most important thing to know if you are looking for 100% vegan candy, is read the label. Even candy that was vegan at one point can change, so turning that bag around and looking at the ingredients is super important.
Basically any candy that has no animal products in it is considered vegan. The problem is, that with candy, there are ingredients you may not know come from an animal. Here is a list of the most common ingredients in candy that are not vegan:
Vegan Halloween Products
Ingredients
For example, cocoa butter. It sounds like it could be vegan but maybe not because of the butter. If it has butter then it must have dairy, right? Before I was vegan, I thought it was a milk-based butter but it’s not. Cocoa butter is actually the fat portion of the cocoa bean, so it’s vegan. Who knew?!
The following list has vegan-friendly ingredients that you might see on a candy ingredient label. These ingredients are safe for vegans:
Ingredients Not Suitable for Vegans
If you see any of the following ingredients on a candy label, the candy is not vegan and it’s not safe for vegans to consume.
Can Vegans Eat Chocolate?
Yes, there is vegan chocolate candy! Vegans can eat dark chocolate candy and “milk” chocolate that is made with dairy-free milk. If the chocolate has milk, then no because milk is an animal-derived product. However most dark chocolate is vegan because it does not contain milk. Read the ingredients and make sure there is no milk or milk-derived ingredients listed.