Are Pop Tarts Vegan? It Entirely Depends on You.

are pop tarts vegan?

You heard that right. While all pop tart flavours may not be considered vegan. A few of them, if you may, pass the test! The makers of your favourite childhood snack took care to not make you feel guilty about your cravings. You may have grown up from that lover of toasted pastries to a more responsible adult who wants to live sustainably with their environment, your kind affirmations to our humble mother earth have borne some sweet tarts.

Pop tarts started out in the market with just four varieties and are now producing an enormously wide range of flavours each of which is someone’s pet favourite. Your brightly decorated childhood favourite pop tart may not be safe for consumption now that you’re vegan, we have listed the key non vegan ingredients in some of the well known pop tarts that top the favourites lists. The following conversation piece will set the record straight for the wringer, are pop tarts vegan?

Your favourite nostalgic Pop-Tart may not be your best option as a kind adult.

  • Brown Sugar Cinnamon: the frosting on this pop tart has gelatin. Gelatin is a product used by industries to set liquid foods in a solid state and is made by a prolonged process of boiling animal bones, cartilage, and skin. We are as repelled as you. This flavour is a big no-no.
  • S’mores: This flavour has dairy whey, gelatin, dairy milk and egg whites. Dairy products are never a part of a vegan’s meal. Egg whites, No! We are a bunch of people who are kind to not only humans, but also the cows whose bodies are ruthlessly drained by those selfish dairy industries.
  • Hot fudge Sundae: This flavour has a gelatin frosting. And nothing made of suffering ever attracts a vegan.
  • Chocolate Chip: This flavour has dairy whey, dairy milk, egg whites, and gelatin. Next! 
  • Vanilla Milkshake: Sadly, this simple delight too has dairy whey and gelatin.
  • Chocolate fudge: They don’t know how to make fudge without dairy whey, gelatin, and egg whites!
  • Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: Like all other chocolate flavours, this too has dairy milk, gelatin, and egg whites.
  • Blueberry: This has gelatin too!
  • Gone Nutty Peanut Butter: We know, they could have used vegan milk but this flavour also uses dairy milk.
  • Strawberry Milkshake: This flavour utilizes dairy cream and whey in production.
  • Strawberry: They use gelatin for the simple strawberry flavour!
  • Cherry: Not vegan! This too has gelatin.
photo of pop tarts in a supermarket

We must however be thankful to Pop Tarts for still improvising a few vegan friendly options for the kind ones amongst us who would want to relive a few childhood memories and maintain life-long sweet delicacies while remaining cruelty-free. Fundamentally, all Pop-Tarts without frosting may be considered vegan since the non-vegan dairy whey, dairy milk, gelatin, and egg whites are required for building this shiny decorative part.

Though a few components in these widely considered Vegan Pop-Tarts may seem problematic to stricter vegans with wider perspectives, here they are.

Unfrosted Strawberry, for the ones who can’t get enough of sweets

Kellogg’s describes these Pop-Tarts as delicious strawberry flavored filling smack dab in the middle of a golden, frosting free crust that just goes to show you, it’s all about what’s inside.

The frosted strawberry flavor of your younger years was definitely sweet enough to dazzle your brain with every bite, but you may not even like that much sweetness as an adult. You may have lied down in a supermarket aisle begging your mom to get an extra of these, now you gotta run to your nearest store and get a pack of these essentially sweet pink pastries that touch your heart before your tongue. We have listed all the ingredients of this incomparable flavor for you to analyze what suits your kind choices.

The presence of palm oil and the artificial colors (red#40 and yellow#6) In the essential ingredients may be problematic for stricter vegans.

Unfrosted Blueberry, for the ones who like their tarts fruity

Kellogg’s says these are nothing too fancy but just a simple golden crust filled with the most amazing blueberry flavour you’ve ever known.

Considered the best variety of Pop-Tarts for a toasted pastry breakfast by many moms across the states, Blueberry is always the obvious option when you are bored of chocolates and strawberries in every other sweet product. Unlike the frosted Blueberry Pop-Tart which uses gelatin for the production of that attractive frosting, Unfrosted Blueberry Pop-Tart comes without an outer decoration but with a rich inner filling of your desired juicy berries to make your best day’s start a fresh boost. 

The use of palm oil, artificial colors (red#40, blue#1, blue#2), and natural flavours in this variety of Pop-Tarts is often an issue of debate amongst stricter vegans.

Unfrosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon, for the ones who never want to be bored of Pop-Tarts

Kellogg’s describes Pop-Tarts Unfrosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon pastries as a delicious treat to look forward to and jump start your day with a gooey, brown sugar cinnamon flavoured center encased in a perfectly crumbly pastry crust. 

This essential delicious breakfast requirement tastes like the butter-brown sugar toasts you’d remember from childhood. Less fruity, less sweet, and a blessing for the taste buds, warming these tarts in a toaster for a minute makes them easy going with early morning coffee, or late night wine. While some people may rank this variety as their favourite, it is basically on everyone’s good flavours list.

Stricter vegans have problems with the use of Palm oil in the manufacturing of this product.

Unfrosted Strawberry, Unfrosted Blueberry, and Unfrosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts may be considered vegan… to an extent..

Are pop tarts vegan? a detailed look at the ingredients

Ingredients like Palm oil, artificial colors, and natural flavors bring these Pop-Tarts under the scrutiny of better knowing Vegans who don’t tolerate any environmental or animal sacrifice in their choice.

Palm oil

Palm oil is plant-based but the implications of it’s cultivation are far from vegan. The ethical, environmental, and social challenges posed by these sprawling plantations make it a controversial ingredient in our common lazy snacks.

The thoughtless and large-scale clearing of rainforests endangers the survival of wild animals who lose their habitat. These hopeless animals are left wandering for food and shelter that was once readily available in the lush evergreen rainforests. This has brought many wild animals into the list of endangered species.

Tropical rainforests are extremely essential for maintaining a balanced and healthy atmosphere for our planet. Their disastrous deforestation has devastating implications. In addition to the loss of several trees, palm plantations also contribute methane to our environment. Deforestation coupled with the release of greenhouse gases adds to the rising levels of global warming.

Poor bonded laborers have to bear the social and ethical grunt of palm cutivation. Scarcely fed workers endlessly toil in these abundant fields of cruelty and experience nothing equivaleng to human rights.

Artificial Colors

Unfrosted Blueberry Pop-Tarts contain artificial colors (red#40, blue#1, blue#2), and the Unfrosted Strawberry flavour contains colors (red#40, yellow#6). 

Artificial colors are problematic because they require testing on animals from time to time. Another misfortune with them is, they need to be periodically tested because they could cause serious consequences to human health. 

Many vegans may choose to incorporate them in their diet any way. But they are not a healthy choice.

Natural Flavours

The Unfrosted Blueberry flavor of Pop Tarts contains natural flavors. It is known that natural flavors may or may not be always derived from plants. It could be obtained from any animal-based source too. This is why vegans are sceptical.

Contrary to your expectations, the natural blueberry flavour in your tart may or may not be derived from the natural fruit.

We understand that your commitment to being a better human being is more important than relishing a few taste buds, 

but that will not stop your kindness from bearing you some sweet tarts.

Yes! You can always make your own Pop Tarts at home with our special recipe, the way you like them, in less time, and with more satisfaction. Here we go! 

It is entirely possible to not rely on these selfish capitalist manufacturers and yet bring back your sweet childhood fantasies. We have listed a simple recipe for you to make your own delicious berry filled Pop Tarts at home.

These tarts will be flaky as you like them, with a berry filling, light raw sugar topping, and a glaze of vanilla. This guilt free indulgence is sure to make you excited like we are!

You require the following ingredients:

  • Two cups of flour 
  • One pinch of salt
  • Two-third cup of cold vegan butter 
  • Two-four tablespoons of ice cold water
  • One heaping cup of frozen mixed berries
  • One tablespoon of raw sugar for topping
  • Vanilla glaze 

Step 1: Preheat the oven up to 375 degrees. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step 2: Put the berries in a saucepan and cook for 5 to 8 minutes at medium heat with the lid on. Smash the berries occasionally with a spoon and add a few tablespoons of sugar if you desire extra sweetness. We recommend you to add one tablespoon of raw sugar. Then put this down to cool. 

Step 3: Mix the flour and the salt in a large bowl and then cut in butter with a fork or by using a pastry cutter. 

Step 4: Sprinkle ice cold water over the mixture and thoroughly mix with a wooden spoon until a dough is formed. We recommend you to add two to three or even five tablespoons of cold water. The idea is to make the dough moist enough to turn it into a ball that doesn’t feel too sticky while kneading. In case it gets too wet, add more dough.

Step 5: Spread flour on a flat surface and then spread the dough in the form of a disk by using a rolling pin to flatten it into a large rectangular shape. Covering the surface of the dough with a plastic sheet wrap will make it easier to roll and reduce the cracking.

Step 6: Cut about 12 squares of equal sizes and place them upon the baking sheet carefully.

Step 7: Add about 1 tablespoon of the berry filling on top of half of the cut squares while leaving a little (about one-fourth) extra border at the edges to seal. Then add another square on top and seal the edges by placing your finger and dotting water over the edges so that two squares stick together. You can also use a fork to lightly seal the matching squares together.

Step 8: On the top of each set of squares, poke tiny holes and add a dab of vegan butter to the top. You can also sprinkle raw sugar on the surface of the upper square. 

Step 9: Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the crusts turn golden brown.

Step 10: Let this cool down for a few minutes and then decorate with vanilla glaze if you require sweeter pop tarts.

Conclusion

We hope you find the three vegan Pop Tarts in your nearest supermarket. If not, we promise that this simple Pop Tart recipe will definitely make your weekend special. As Gilmore rightly said,’The Pop Tart tasted like Freedom and Rebellion and Independence’. It is okay if you cannot avoid processed sugar and palm oil in your food. Considering that, your options in the wide variety of Pop Tart flavor would increase. So are Pop Tarts vegan? The true answer is, it depends on you.

Joe became a vegan after watching Cowspiracy. He always knew something was off with the way we consume animal products, but watching the documentary made him realized how bad it actually is. Joe is now making sure that every product he buys is 100% vegan!