Onion rings, being a popular dish, are the favorites of many people. It is widely found in many restaurants and cafes. Mostly, the onion rings are meant to be totally vegan but are Burger King onion rings vegan?
Burger King Onion Rings are not vegan. They contain whey, which is a byproduct in the processes of making cheese. There are also two questionable ingredients, natural flavors and Palm oil.
Up next we will take a look at the ingredients.
Ingredients
Though the batter used in Burger King for preparing onion rings is eggless, it contains milk derivatives. This derivative is called whey which is derived from the extract of the milk.
So what ingredients are there beside whey in the Burger King onion rings?
- Water
- Bleached wheat flour
- Dehydrated onion
- Modified corn starch
- Yellow corn flour
- Sugar
- Gelatinized wheat starch
- Salt
- Guar gum
- Methylcellulose
- Fructose
- Onion powder
- Food starch-modified
- Sodium
- Alginate
- Sunflower oil
- Natural flavors
- Grill flavor (from sunflower oil)
- Canola oil
- Wheat gluten
- Modified palm oil
- Sodium tripolyphosphate
- Whey
- Dextrose
- Garlic powder
- Leavening
- Spice
- Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose
- Yeast extract
- Corn starch
- Sorbitol
- Dried yeast
- Calcium chloride
- parfried in soybean oil
[Source]
I highlighted some of the ingredients because they can contain animal products or cause enviromental issues.
Natural Flavors
Now Natural flavors can be derivaded from both animals and plants so there is no way to be sure unless it says specificly what it’s made from.
Soybean Oil
The reason I highlighted these two oils is the potentional of them beeing made from GMO crops. Why is that a bad? Well a consequence of using GMO when it comes to soybean oil is the increase in pesticide used to grown the crop.
This contributes to enviromental issues.
Canola Oil
Canola Oil can also be produced from GMO crops.
Palm Oil
This is a hot topic in the vegan community. Is this really vegan? Well it’s basicly made from plant-based ingredients so yes the product itself is vegan but the reason it’s so debated is the sever enviromental issues the industry causes.
Wild life and eco systems are destroyed through deforestation. Now there is a way to sustainbly produce palm oil and with the guidance of RSPO.
So if you are ever concerned that a product uses palm oil then look for the RSPO label or contact the company and ask if their palm oil is sustainable.
Whey
As we mentioned earlier whey is a byproduct in the production of cheese and vegans don’t eat this because it comes from animals.
Conclusion
To sum up as you can see there is no debate if the Burger King onion rings are vegan or not. They are definitely not vegan and even without the whey it would hard to ignore the sever enviromental impact that some of the ingredients can cause.
We can only hope that Burger King removes the whey and makes the onion rings from more sustainble ingredients in the future.
