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When it comes to candy, there are few that can rival the popularity of Cow Tales. This chewy caramel treat has been around for decades and continues to be a favorite among kids and adults alike. But, are Cow Tales vegan?
No flavors of Cow Tales are vegan because they contain milk.
Below is a table showing Cow Tales flavors and its vegan status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Original Caramel | No, contains Milk. |
| Caramel Brownie | No, contains Milk. |
| Strawberry Smoothie | No, contains Milk. |
| Caramel Apple | No, contains Milk. |
| Oreo | No, contains Milk. |
Cow Tales Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients from all the flavors that I could find.
- Artificial Flavors
- Citric Acid
- Cocoa Powder
- Corn Starch
- Corn Syrup
- Cream
- Dextrose
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Highly Refined Coconut Oil
- Lactic Acid
- Lecithin
- Milk
- Modified Whey
- Mono & Diglycerides
- Natural & Artificial Flavors
- Natural Vanilla Flavor
- Palm Oil
- Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil
- Red 40
- Red 40 Lake
- Salt
- Semi-sweet Chocolate
- Skim Milk
- Soy Lecithin
- Sugar
- Wheat Flour
[Source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Milk
Milk is put under non-vegan ingredients since it come from cow’s and vegans don’t eat any ingredients sourced from animals.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
This ingredient is a highly questionable one because of the presence of bone char. Sugar is very common almost all candy products today and the most common type of sugar is cane sugar. Raw cane sugar is always 100% vegan-friendly, but when it gets refined that a whole other story.
In order to fit the product it’s often refined and in this refining process it’s also bleached. A common method here is to use bone char from dead cows. This has made many vegans upset, because exploiting animals in the production process would make that product non-vegan.
Natural Flavor
The second questionable ingredient is natural flavor and this is an ingredient that vegans needs to be on the lookout for. Natural flavors is an umbrella term, meaning that it often consists of several ingredients and problem with is the fact that the source is not disclosed on the ingredients label.
So natural flavors could consist of ingredients derived from animals, but the ingredients label would only say natural flavors. The only way to be sure this ingredient is vegan-friendly is either if it’s label vegan or to contact the company.
Artificial Colors
Artificial colors is a very controversial ingredient within the vegan community and for good reason I might add. These colors don’t contain any ingredients sourced from animals, but they are known for being tested on animals.
The animal testing might still be going on, but there are several other testing methods out there that can do a great job such as computer simulations. Ethical vegans would stay away from products containing these colors, but dietary vegans might choose to consume them.
Soy & Corn
Soy and corn are two of the most common GMO crops in USA and problem with these crops is the fact that a high amount of herbicide is needed in order for them to grow properly. This can pollute the surrounding ecosystem and damage it beyond repair.
Mono & Diglycerides
This ingredient can be made from both plants and animals.
Vegan Alternative To Cow Tales
If you are looking for a great vegan candy alternative then I would recommend that you try YumEarth. They are really tasty and most flavors are 100% vegan-friendly.
Conclusion
It’s too bad that no flavors of Cow Tales are vegan-friendly, but luckily I found a great alternative. YumEarth taste amazing and my kids love it, I can really recommend it.
Thanks for reading, take care!
