Vegetarian and Gummy Sugar Free Sweets

It is amazing the difference a year makes, this time last year the only vegan sugar free vaguely gummy sweet was Turkish delight, and for vegetarians, wine gums and one type of liquorice.   It's not surprising as there has been a surge of popular interest in vegetarian and vegan diets

There is now a range of gummy sweets for both Vegans and Vegetarians.  Traditional gummy sweets use gelatin which is an animal product, to achieve the characteristic chewy, jelly like texture.   However there is a good alternative called Agar that is derived from sea weed and types of starch so there really is no excuse.

I have put together a list of all the Vegetarian and Vegan gummy sweets we do.  It's based on the Manufacturers' claims.  

Some like the Sula Soft Gums also look vegan to me when I look at the ingredient list but I may not have interpreted the ingredients correctly. 

The de Bron Wine Gums are vegetarian if you do not mind the fact that beeswax is used as a glazing agent.

Some of the products are certified by the Vegetarian Society these can be found here.

I am Vegetarian myself so am really pleased that the range of sugar free sweets we can enjoy has increased.  I hope that I can update this article next year to include even more sugar free vegan and vegetarian sweets

Other sweets which may be vegetarian.

Most Dark Chocolate is Vegan.   Milk chocolate will usually be suitable for vegetarians

 Boiled sweets are mostly vegan and vegetarian.  The exception is butterscotch style sweets which contain milk so are only vegetarian.  Occasionally there may be a colouring used in sweets that makes them non-vegetarian. The Simpkins Travel Sweets are certified vegetarian.

I would be wary of Toffees and Chews as some do contain gelatin, particularly the fruit chews.  However the traditional English style toffees will usually be vegetarian as they should not contain gelatin.

 I wish.....

I wish more manufacturers clearly marked their sweets as vegetarian or vegan.  It would make life so much easier for us than needing to go through the ingredients list on each sweet.