The bad news is that most Pop Tarts are not vegan, not even close.
However, there are a few that might be vegan depending on how “strict” of a vegan you are, and your opinions on controversial ingredients.
I’ll quickly go over all the flavors that are not vegan, and then the ones that might be.
Table of Contents
These Pop Tart Flavors Are Clearly NOT Vegan
I checked the ingredients list for a few different countries (i.e. Canada, UK, US), and the ingredients appear to be virtually identical.
All of these flavors contain at least one of 4 ingredients that are never vegan: gelatin, milk, whey (which comes from milk), and egg whites.
| Flavor | Non-Vegan Ingredients |
|---|---|
| Cherry | Gelatin |
| S’mores | Whey, Milk, Gelatin, Egg whites |
| Strawberry Milkshake | Cream, Gelatin |
| Gone Nutty Peanut Butter | Milk |
| Brown Sugar Cinnamon | Gelatin |
| Cinnamon Roll | Gelatin |
| Blueberry | Gelatin |
| Vanilla Milkshake | Whey, Gelatin |
| Chocolate Fudge | Whey, Gelatin, Egg whites |
| Chocolate Chip | Whey, Milk, Gelatin, Egg whites |
| Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough | Milk, Gelatin, Egg whites |
| Hot Fudge Sundae | Gelatin |
| Strawberry | Gelatin |
No need to spend much time here, so let’s move on.
These Pop Tart Flavors MIGHT Be Vegan
There are 3 “unfrosted” flavors that are dairy-free and don’t have any of those obvious non-vegan ingredients.
However, that doesn’t mean that they are definitely vegan either.
Let’s go over the ingredients, and then I’ll explain why.
| Flavor | Potential Non-Vegan Ingredients |
|---|---|
| Unfrosted Blueberry | Palm oil, artificial colors (red #40, blue #1, blue #2), natural flavors |
| Unfrosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon | Palm oil |
| Unfrosted Strawberry | Palm oil, artificial colors (red #40, yellow #6) |
There are 3 potential issues here:
- Palm oil – Many vegans don’t eat palm oil due to the effect the industry has on animals and the environment. I wrote a detailed post on why palm oil might not be vegan. My personal opinion is that it’s “technically” vegan, but most ethical vegans will still want to avoid it.
- Artificial colors – While the colors themselves are synthetic and vegan, there’s a lot of animal testing surrounding them. It’s a gray area and it’s up to you to determine if you think artificial colors are vegan or not.
- Natural flavors – These only show up in the unfrosted blueberry flavor. The term “natural flavors” covers a huge list of flavoring ingredients, most of which are vegan, but some are not. It’s up to you if you’ll take the risk or not.
In summary, strict vegans won’t consider any Pop Tarts to be vegan.
However, if you’re okay with palm oil, all 3 unfrosted versions are potential options. Then it just comes down to how you feel about artificial colors and natural flavors, but you’ll have at least 1 option (unfrosted brown sugar cinnamon).
Vegan Toaster Pastry Alternatives to Pop Tarts
There aren’t many brands of vegan toaster pastries at the moment, but there is one – Bobo’s.
Bobo’s makes a few different flavors of vegan toaster pastries, which you can buy online or in certain stores (can be hard to find though).
Alternatively, you can learn to make them yourself, although they’re somewhat difficult for us bad to average cooks.
Here are some highly rated recipes for vegan pop tarts:
- Vegan Berry Pop-Tarts (Minimalist Baker)
- Vegan Stuffed Toaster Pastries (Vega)
If you find any other good recipes or vegan pop tart brands, please leave a comment below and share them with anyone else who visits this page.
