Some jelly and jams are vegan, and some are not.
So let’s look at one of the most popular brands: Welch’s grape jelly.
Ingredients in Welch’s Grape Jelly
The ingredients in concord grape jelly is surprisingly short:
Concord Grapes, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Fruit Pectin, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate
To me that’s clearly vegan, but let’s break down the ingredients one at a time so you have fewer doubts:
- Grapes – Always vegan
- Corn syrup – Unhealthy, but vegan
- Fruit pectin – Straight from fruit, always vegan
- Citric acid – Vegan, it’s made synthetically or extracted from fruit
- Sodium citrate – Vegan, it’s just a salt of citric acid
Is Welch’s Grape Jelly Vegan?
Yes, it is vegan-friendly.
We can be almost 100% certain.
Most jams and jelly that aren’t vegan typically have gelatin in them, or sweeteners like honey.
Here, this jelly uses pectin instead of gelatin as a gelling agent (for texture), and corn syrup instead of honey as a sweetener.
