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The Charleston Chew is a chocolate-covered taffy bar that was invented in 1922 and named after the popular dance of the time. The candy bar became popular in the 1930s and is still sold today. But, are Charleston Chews vegan?
No flavors of Charleston chews are vegan because they all contain milk.
Below is a table showing Charleston Chews flavors and its vegan status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Charelston Chew Vanilla | No, contains Milk. |
| Charelston Chew Strawberry | No, contains Milk. |
| Charelston Chew Chocolate | No, contains Milk. |
Charleston Chews Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients from all the flavors that I could find.
- Artificial Color (Fd&c Red 40)
- Artificial Flavor
- Citric Acid
- Cocoa
- Coconut
- Cottonseed
- Corn Syrup
- Egg Albumen
- Lactic Acid Esters of Mono- And Diglycerides
- Lactose
- Milk Protein Concentrate
- Natural And Artificial Flavor
- Nonfat Dry Milk
- Nonfat Milk Solids
- Palm Kernel and Palm Oil
- Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil
- Salt
- Sodium Citrate
- Soy Lecithin
- Soy Protein
- Sugar
- Vegetable Protein
[Source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Milk & Egg
There are ingredients made from milk such as lactose and nonfat dry milk. It’s made from cow’s milk and is not vegan. The same goes for eggs since it comes from hens, also not vegan.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
Sugar is a tricky ingredient for vegans, because there is always the possibility of bone char being used in the production process. Beet sugar and cane sugar is commonly used in the candy industry and the latter being the most one used. Beet sugar is always 100% vegan-friendly.
Cane sugar however often needs to be refined to fit the candy products better and in this refining process the sugar is also bleached. A common way to bleach the cane sugar is to use the bone char from dead cows and exploiting animals in the production process is not something vegans wants to support.
Natural Flavor
Natural flavors has the risk of containing animal-derived ingredients, because natural flavors can consists of many ingredients and the source is rarely disclosed. If it contains milk that is however disclosed most of the time because of the allergic factor.
So always be careful when consuming natural flavors. If the product is labeled vegan by a trusted organisation such as vegan.org or vegan society then you can be sure that the natural flavors in that product is vegan-friendly.
Artificial Color
Artificial colors is a highly controversial ingredient within the vegan community and a lot of vegans tends to stay way from these colors. These colors are known for being tested on animals and this has made many vegan upset. There are other testing methods such as computer simulations.
One of the colors red 40 also has some health issues connected to it such as hyperactivity in kids.
Palm Oil
A major problem with palm oil is the deforestation taking place in order to make place for the plantations. This is forcing away wild animals such as orangutans, leaving them without homes. It’s not only vegans that are staying away from palm oil, but many people oppose to this industry.
There are however a way for the palm oil to be more vegan-friendly and it’s called RSPO, which is a non-profit organisation that helps companies produce and buy sustainable palm oil. This has a lower impact on the environment, the animals and would be more vegan-friendly.
Mono- And Diglycerides
This ingredient can be derived from animals and plants.
Conclusion
It’s a shame no flavors of Charleston chews being vegan because they are delicious. I did not find a vegan alternative, but if I do I will update this article. Knowing if an product is vegan can be tricky, but it’s getting easier with more products hitting the market.
Hopefully vegan chews will be available in the future.
Thanks for reading, take care!
