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Whether you are going for a movie night or just a party, chips and nachos are always welcome. Me and my oldest daughter was planning a movie night. She wanted Doritos, but I was not 100% sure we could have it since we are vegans. I searched online for ingredients to answer my question, are Doritos vegan?
Most Flavors of Doritos are not vegan, because they contain milk. Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili might be vegan, but disodium inosinate and natural flavors can be found in this flavor. A lot of other non-vegan and questionable ingredients such as cheese, whey and artificial colors can be found in Doritos as well.
Below I have listed all flavors of Doritos that I could find together with the vegan status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Doritos 3D Crunch Spicy Ranch | No, it contains Milk. |
| Doritos 3D Crunch Chili Cheese Nacho | No, it contains Milk. |
| Doritos Flamin’ Hot Nacho | No, it contains Milk. |
| Doritos Flamin’ Hot Limón | No, it contains Milk. |
| Doritos Nacho Cheese | No, it contains Milk. |
| Doritos Cool Ranch | No, it contains Milk. |
| Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili | Might be vegan, but contains Disodium Inosinate and Natural Flavors. |
| Doritos Poppin’ Jalapeno | No, it contains Milk. |
| Doritos Dinamita Chile Limón | No, it contains Milk. |
| Doritos Spicy Nacho | No, it contains Milk. |
| Doritos Flamas | No, it contains Milk. |
| Simply Organic Spicy White Cheddar | No, it contains Milk. |
| Simply Organic White Cheddar | No, it contains Milk. |
| Doritos Salsa Verde | No, it contains Chicken Flavor. |
| Doritos Blazin’ Buffalo & Ranch | No, it contains Milk. |
| Doritos Taco Flavor | No, it contains Milk. |
| Doritos Tapatio | No, it contains Milk. |
Doritos Ingredients
I went through all flavors of Doritos on their website and I listed the ingredients below:
- Acacia Gum
- Annatto Oil
- Baking Soda
- Blue 1
- Blue 1 Lake
- Blue 2 Lake
- Blue Cheese
- Butter
- Buttermilk
- Canola Oil
- Caramel Color
- Carob Bean Gum
- Cheddar Cheese
- Cheese Cultures
- Citric Acid
- Corn Flour
- Corn Oil
- Corn Starch
- Corn Syrup Solids
- Cream
- Dextrose
- Disodium Guanylate
- Disodium Inosinate
- Extractives of Paprika
- Fructose
- Garlic Powder
- Green Bell Pepper
- Guar Gum
- Hydrolyzed Corn Gluten
- Hydrolyzed Corn Protein
- Hydrolyzed Soy Protein
- Jalapeno Pepper Powder
- Lactic Acid
- Lactose
- Lemon Juice
- Malic Acid
- Maltodextrin (Made From Corn)
- Milk Protein Concentrate
- Modified Corn Starch
- Monoglycerides
- Monosodium Glutamate
- Monterey Jack Cheese
- Natural Flavor (Including Natural Extractives of Lime and Natural Extractives of Red Pepper, Natural Extractives of Bee)
- Natural Flavors
- Natural and Artificial Flavors (Including Natural Chicken Flavor)
- Onion Powder
- Paprika
- Parmesan Cheese
- Parsley
- Potassium Chloride
- Red 40
- Red 40 Lake
- Romano Cheese
- Salt
- Sea Salt
- Skim Milk
- Sodium Acetate
- Sodium Caseinate
- Sodium Diacetate
- Sour Cream
- Soy Sauce
- Soybean Oil
- Spices
- Sugar
- Sunflower oil
- Swiss Cheese
- Tomato Powder
- Torula Yeast
- Tocopherol (antioxidant)
- Vinegar
- Wheat
- Whey
- Xanthan Gum
- Yeast Extract
- Yellow 5
- Yellow 5 Lake
- Yellow 6
- Yellow 6 Lake
I highlighted the ingredients that we need to check if they are vegan or not.
Three Non-Vegan Ingredients That Can Be Found In Doritos
Disodium Inosinate
This is often used as a flavor enhancer.
The most common sources that Disodium Inosinate is derived from are pigs and chickens.
It can be derived from a plant based source, but it’s not that common.
This ingredient is probably not vegan.
Milk
A lot of the Doritos flavors contains ingredients made from milk.
I listed them below:
- Buttermilk
- Cheese
- Milk Protein Concentrate
- Skim Milk
- Sodium Caseinate
- Sour Cream
Milk, cheese and cream are the most commons ones.
I want to talk about more about sodium caseinate since it’s not that common in chips.
It’s a protein derived from milk, that is very popular in supplements.
It’s good to know that sometimes products say non-dairy, but still contain sodium caseinate, which obviosly is a dairy product.
Cow’s milk is a non-vegan ingredient.
Artificial Colors
So I put artificial colors under the section non-vegan ingredients, because I think dont think it’s a vegan-friendly ingredient.
The follow artificial colors can be found among the Doritos flavors:
- Blue 1
- Blue 2
- Red 40
- Yellow 5
- Yellow 6
To be fair there are no ingredients derived from animals in artificial colors, so they are suited for people that are dietary vegans.
For ethical vegans a.k.a. vegans, this ingredient is an issue, because of the animal testing that was been done and probably still beeing conducted.
There are other testing methods, such as computer simulations, which are becoming more popular.
Five Questionable Ingredients That Might Not Be Vegan-Friendly In Doritos
Corn & Soy
Corn and soy are of course vegan since they don’t contain any animal derived ingredients.
They reason I wanted to talk a bit about is the fact that they are two of the most common GMO crops in the US.
The problem with GMO crops and especially soybeans is the high amount of herbicide used to grow them.
The herbicide can spread into water streams, which will damage the ecosystems severely around the farm.
Ethical vegans tends to stay away from GMO crops.
Monoglycerides
This ingredient is an fatty acid, often used as an emulsifier in food and snacks.
It can be derived from both plants and animals.
If the source is not stated on the ingredients label, then it’s impossible to know whether it’s vegan or not.
Natural And Artificial Flavors
Natural and artificial flavors can be a tricky ingredient.
In Doritos there are a lot of vegan ingredients here, but there are also non-vegan ingredients present.
Natural Extractives of Bee and chicken flavors can be found in some of the Doritos flavors.
But more non-vegan can be hidden in this umbrella term that is natural flavors.
There is an interesting article on national geographic can discloses the use of butt goo from beavers in vanilla flavors.
It’s true!
You can read the article here.
The only way to be sure about natural flavors is to contact the company and ask.
Spices
I had to to call out spices, because it can contain non-vegan ingredients.
It does not specifiy exactly what spices that is included here and most of the time company secrets.
Sugar
Sugar is a hot topic in the vegan community.
This is mostly an issue when it comes to candy.
But I think it’s important to adress the potential problem and that is the presence of bone char.
The most common sugar used in candy is cane sugar and bone char is often used in the bleaching process.
Now Doritos is not candy so this is probably not a problem.
Tocopherol
Tocopherol also known as vitamin E can be derived from animals and plants.
It’s no way knowing the source unless the company disclose it.
The source can not be found on Doritos.
Vegan Alternative To Doritos
I put a small list below of great vegan alternatives to Doritos.
I hope you find a flavors that suits your taste.
FAQ’s
Are Doritos Vegetarian?
There quite a few flavors of Doritos that are vegetarian. As you can see a lot of the Doritos flavors contains disodium inosinate, which is commonly derived from pigs and chickens. I still put the flavors as vegetarian because there is a chance the ingredient is plant-based. If you want to be 100% it’s vegetarian then choose the flavors that has only has the status “Vegetarian” from the table below.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Doritos 3D Crunch Spicy Ranch | Vegetarian, but contains Disodium Inosinate. |
| Doritos 3D Crunch Chili Cheese Nacho | Vegetarian, but contains Disodium Inosinate. |
| Doritos Flamin’ Hot Nacho | Vegetarian, but contains Disodium Inosinate. |
| Doritos Flamin’ Hot Limón | Vegetarian, but contains Disodium Inosinate. |
| Doritos Nacho Cheese | Vegetarian, but contains Disodium Inosinate. |
| Doritos Cool Ranch | Vegetarian, but contains Disodium Inosinate. |
| Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili | Vegetarian, but contains Disodium Inosinate. |
| Doritos Poppin’ Jalapeno | Vegetarian, but contains Disodium Inosinate. |
| Doritos Dinamita Chile Limón | Vegetarian, but contains Disodium Inosinate. |
| Doritos Spicy Nacho | Vegetarian, but contains Disodium Inosinate. |
| Doritos Flamas | Probably not, it contains Extractives of Bee and Disodium Inosinate. |
| Simply Organic Spicy White Cheddar | Vegetarian. |
| Simply Organic White Cheddar | Vegetarian. |
| Doritos Salsa Verde | No, it contains Chicken Flavor. |
| Doritos Blazin’ Buffalo & Ranch | Vegetarian. |
| Doritos Taco Flavor | Vegetarian. |
| Doritos Tapatio | Vegetarian, but contains Disodium Inosinate. |
Conclusion
As you can see Doritos is not exactly the vegan-friendly brand.
Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili is the closest to a vegan option Doritos have and that flavors contain two very questionable with one of them probably not beeing vegan.
It’s not easy knowing if a product is vegan or not by looking at the ingredients and that’s why I’ve done this for you.
I like doing the research and beeing thurow.
I hope this article helped you.
Cheers!
