Are Pop Tarts Vegan? (These Flavors Might Be…)

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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.

These Pop Tart Flavors Are Clearly NOT Vegan

pop tarts

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

unfrosted pop tarts

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).

bobos toaster pastries

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:

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.

About the author

Dale Cudmore

Your friendly neighborhood vegan from Toronto. Chemical engineer turned semi-professional soccer player and freelance nutrition writer. I've been vegan for years and try to make life easier for others by sharing what I've learned.