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Girl Scout Cookies are a beloved tradition in American culture, with their delicious flavors and iconic packaging. Every year, millions of boxes are sold by Girl Scouts around the country in support of the organization’s mission to empower young girls. But, are Girl Scout Cookies vegan?
Several Girl Scout Cookies are vegan such as Lemonades, Thin Mints and Toast-Yay! They don’t contain any ingredients sourced from animals.
Below is a table showing Girl Scout Cookies flavors and its vegan status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Raspberry Rally | Maybe, contains Natural Flavors and Sorbitan Tristearate. |
| Adventurefuls | No, contains Milk. |
| Caramel Chocolate Chip | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor. |
| Caramel deLites | Samoas | No, contains Milk. |
| Do-si-dos | Peanut Butter Sandwich | No, contains Milk. |
| Girl Scout S’mores | No, contains Milk. |
| Lemonades | Vegan. |
| Lemon-Ups | No, contains Milk. |
| Peanut Butter Patties | Tagalongs | No, contains Milk. |
| Thin Mints | Vegan. |
| Toast-Yay! | Vegan. |
| Toffee-tastic | No, contains Milk. |
| Trefoils | No, contains Milk. |
Girl Scout Cookies Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients from all the flavors that I could find.
- Annatto Extract Color
- Baking Soda
- Brown Rice Flour
- Brown Sugar
- Butter
- Butter Toffee Bits
- Buttermilk
- Cane Sugar
- Caramel Color
- Carrageenan
- Chocolate
- Citric Acid
- Cocoa
- Cocoa Butter
- Cocoa Processed With Alkali
- Coconut
- Cornstarch
- Corn Syrup
- Cornstarch
- Dextrose
- Enriched Flour
- Folic Acid
- Fructose
- Glycerin
- Graham Flour
- Invert Sugar
- Malic Acid
- Milk
- Molasses
- Monocalcium Phosphate
- Natural And Artificial Flavors
- Niacin
- Nonfat Milk
- Palm And Palm Kernel Oil
- Paprika Extract (Color)
- Propylene Glycol Alginate
- Red 40
- Reduced Iron
- Rice Flour
- Salt
- Semisweet Chocolate
- Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate
- Sorbitan Tristearate
- Soy Lecithin
- Soybean Oil
- Sugar
- Sweetened Condensed Milk
- Tapioca Starch
- Vanilla Extract
- Vitamin B1 [Thiamin Mononitrate]
- Vitamin B2 [Riboflavin]
- Wheat Flour
- Whey
- Whey Protein Concentrate
- Xanthan Gum
[Source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Milk
Milk comes from cows and eating ingredients from animals does not align with veganism.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
This is a controversial ingredient for vegans because of the possible presence of bone char from dead cows. The most common sugars used are beet sugar and cane sugar, where beet sugar and raw cane sugar is always vegan-friendly.
The cane sugar is often refined to fit the product better and in this process the sugar is also bleached. A common method is to use bone char. Exploiting dead animals in the production process would make the sugar non-vegan in many vegans eyes.
Natural Flavor
Natural flavors is an umbrella term, which means that it consists of several ingredients. The problem with this is that the source of these ingredients are never disclosed on the ingredients label. So it could contain animal-derived ingredients and vegans would never know that from reading the ingredients label.
Artificial Colors
Artificial colors are also known for being tested on animals which is a problem for a lot of vegans. There are also several health issues connected to these colors such as hyperactivity in kids.
So if you are eating a plant based diet strictly for health reasons, you will have to decide for yourself if you want to eat products containing artificial colors.
Corn & Soy
Soy and corn are two of the most common GMO crops in the United States and these crops require a high amount of herbicide to grow. This can pollute the surrounding ecosystem and damage it severely.
Glycerin
This ingredient can be made from both plants and animals.
Conclusion
It’s amazing that 3 flavors of Girl Scout Cookies are vegan-friendly. Most of the flavors unfortunately contains milk and natural flavor. Lemonades, Thin Mints and Toast-Yay are suitable for vegans because they don’t contain any ingredients sourced from animals.
Thanks for reading, take care!
