Are belVita Breakfast Biscuits Vegan?

A

Many biscuit and cracker-type packaged foods accidentally happen to be vegan.

I went through the ingredients of each belVita product and flavor to figure out if they’re vegan-friendly or not.

And good news, most of them appear to be vegan friendly.

Ingredients in belVita Biscuits to Look For

In order for everything to make sense in this post, you’ll need to understand a few grey areas of veganism. Here are reference posts if you need them:

  • Sugar – Some sugar is filtered with bone char, it’s a grey area for many vegans.
  • Natural Flavors – Contains a wide variety of ingredients, both of plant and animal ingredients. Only the manufacturer knows if their natural flavoring ingredients are vegan.
  • Glycerin – Can be made from plant or animal sources. Unless specified, there’s no way of knowing. 

Unfortunately, belVita is owned by Mondelez International, who I’ve contacted several times in the past, and they won’t confirm if certain ingredients (like the ones above) are vegan or not.

Are belVita Crunchy Biscuits Vegan?

belvita biscuits

The “Crunchy” line of biscuits are the classic ones.

Here’s the full ingredient list (all the flavors are very similar), I’ve highlighted potential issues:

Whole Grain Blend (Rolled Oats, Rye Flakes), Enriched Flour, Canola Oil, Whole Grain Wheat Flour, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Malt Syrup (From Corn And Barley), Invert Sugar, Baking Soda, Salt, Soy Lecithin, Disodium Pyrophosphate, Cinnamon, Datem, Natural Flavor, Ferric Orthophosphate (Iron), Niacinamide, Molasses, Pyridoxine, Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Thiamin Mononitrate (Vitamin B1).

I’m quite confident that everything besides the sugar and natural flavors are vegan. However, those 2 are up in the air.

Every single flavor of belVita Crunch Biscuits contains these 2 potentially non-vegan ingredients:

  • Toasted coconut
  • Cranberry orange
  • Golden oat
  • Blueberry
  • Cinnamon brown sugar
  • Chocolate

belVita Bites

These bite-sized biscuits have essentially the same ingredients as the Crunchy line.

Again, the 3 flavors all have sugar and natural flavors in them:

  • Cinnamon brown sugar 
  • Chocolate
  • Mixed berry

Are belVita Soft Baked Biscuits Vegan?

belvita protein bars

I won’t go through the full ingredients list again, but these ones are a bit more complicated.

To start with, 3 of the flavors definitely are not vegan:

  • Protein blueberry almond – Contains milk
  • Protein oats, honey & chocolate – Contains milk, honey, eggs
  • Oats & Chocolate – Contains milk

The remaining 3 flavors of soft biscuits may or may not be vegan.

Here are the potential issues in them:

  • Mixed berry – Glycerin, sugar, natural flavor
  • Oats & Peanut Butter – Glycerin, sugar, natural flavor
  • Banana bread – Glycerin, sugar, natural flavor

Typically, when it’s not specified as “vegetable glycerin,” I assume that it’s derived from animal ingredients. 

Therefore, these 3 probably aren’t vegan, but it is possible that they are. It’s up to you if you’d like to take that risk.

Are belVita Sandwich Biscuits Vegan?

belvita sandwich biscuits

These are the most likely to be vegan of all the belVita biscuits.

Surprisingly, even the “yogurt” flavors don’t actually contain any milk.

All 4 flavors of sandwich biscuits contain sugar, and that’s the only ingredient I’m really wary of:

  • Vanilla yogurt creme
  • Strawberry yogurt creme
  • Dark chocolate creme
  • Peanut butter

Summary: Which belVita Biscuits Are Vegan

It’s difficult to sum up so many flavors and grey areas, but here’s my best attempt:

Biscuit Type Verdict Summary
Crunchy Probably vegan The only potential non-vegan ingredients are sugar and natural flavors
Bites Probably vegan Almost identical ingredients to “crunchy” biscuits
Soft Baked Some flavors might be vegan Half the flavors have milk ingredients and aren’t vegan. The other 3 have sugar, natural flavors, glycerin, and might be vegan.
Sandwich Probably vegan The only potential non-vegan ingredient is sugar

While there’s a risk involved with all of them, I think the chances that the Crunchy, Bites, and Sandwich biscuit lines are vegan is quite high.

I wouldn’t be too concerned with the natural flavors in this case because the natural flavors that we’re worried about are mainly dairy derivatives. Since every product clearly states if it contains milk, it seems like the natural flavors are very likely plant-derived.

About the author

Dale Cudmore

Your friendly neighborhood vegan from Toronto. I've spent over 6 years as a freelance nutrition writer and researcher. During this time, I've tested over 50 vegan protein powders, and over 100 other types of vegan supplements.