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Mission Wraps has been a staple of the fast food industry since its inception in 1989. They offer customers fresh, healthy wraps and sandwiches, Mission Wraps has always been a leader in providing quality meals made with fresh ingredients. But, are Mission Wraps vegan?
Mission Original Wraps, Multigrain Wraps and Sun Dried Tomato Basil Wraps are vegan because they don’t contain ingredients derived from animals according to their website. Mission Jalapeño Cheddar Wraps and Garden Spinach Wraps are suited for dietary vegans because they contain artificial colors.
Below is a table showing Mission Wraps flavors and its vegan status.
Flavor | Vegan Status |
Original Wraps | Vegan. |
Multigrain Wraps | Vegan. |
Jalapeño Cheddar Wraps | Dietary vegan. |
Sun Dried Tomato Basil Wraps | Vegan |
Garden Spinach Wraps | Dietary vegan. |
Mission Wraps Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients from all the flavors that I could find.
- Baking Soda
- Barley Flakes
- Barley Flour
- Blue 1 Lake
- Brown Sugar
- Calcium Propionate And Sorbic Acid (To Maintain Freshness)
- Cellulose Gum
- Citric Acid
- Corn Flour
- Datem
- Disodium Guanylate
- Disodium Inosinate
- Distilled Monoglycerides
- Enriched Bleached Flour
- Enzymes
- Flour
- Folic Acid
- Fumaric Acid
- Garlic Powder
- Jalapeno Pepper
- Maltodextrin
- Modified Corn Starch
- Multi-Grain Blend
- Natural And Artificial Flavor
- Niacin
- Oat Flakes
- Onion Powder
- Red Bell Pepper
- Reduced Iron
- Riboflavin
- Rice Flour
- Rye Flakes
- Salt
- Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate
- Spices
- Spinach Powder
- Sugar
- Sulfating Agents
- Sun-Dried Tomato
- Sunflower Oil
- Thiamine Mononitrate
- Tomato Powder
- Triticale Flour
- Vegetable Shortening (Interesterified And Hydrogenated Soybean Oils)
- Vital Wheat Gluten
- Water
- Whole Wheat Flour
- Yeast Extract
- Yellow 5
- Yellow 5 Lake
- Yellow 6
[Source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
Sugar is a controversial ingredient in the vegan community because it’s not always known if the sugar in a product is vegan or not. Two of the most common types of sugar used are beet sugar and cane sugar.
Beet sugar is always vegan and raw cane sugar is always vegan, but cane sugar is not always vegan. Cane sugar is often refined to fit the product and in this process the sugar is also bleached. A common method is to use bone char from dead cows and this does not align with veganism.
The bleaching method is never disclosed on the ingredients label and many times you won’t be able to find which type of sugar it is either, so sugar is a highly questionable ingredient for vegans.
Natural Flavor
The second ingredient is natural flavors and it’s an umbrella term meaning that it’s an ingredient that contains several ingredients. The problem with this is that the source of these ingredients are never disclosed on the ingredients label.
So natural flavors could contain ingredients derived from animals and vegans would never know this only by reading the ingredients label. Milk is often disclosed because people can be allergic.
Artificial Colors
This is probably the most controversial ingredient within the vegan community. It is known for being tested on animals, which is not a very ethical thing to do. There is also a lot of health issues connected to artificial colors such as hyperactivity in children.
There are other testing methods that might be used instead such as computer simulations. The fact that the food industry is still using artificial colors as a way to make their foods more appealing to the public, shows that this ingredient isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
I see a lot of brands switching to more natural colors from fruits and vegetables, which is great and vegan-friendly.
Disodium Guanylate & Disodium Inosinate
These two ingredient can be derived from animals.
Enzymes
Same goes for ezymes, it can be sourced from animals, however Mission has written on their FAQ page that none of their ingredients in Mission Wraps are sourced from animals. So this ingredient is vegan-friendly.
Corn & Soy
These two ingredients are two of the most common GMO crops in the US and some vegans tends to stay away from GMO’s. The reason for this is the high amount of herbicide that they require. This herbicide can then pollute the surrounding ecosystem and damage it severely.
Conclusion
It’s amazing that all Mission Wraps suits some form of the vegan diet. Some of the flavors contains artificial colors so they are not suited from ethical vegans, but rather dietary vegans. Which mainly are people who are eating a plant-based diet for dietary reasons.
Thanks for reading, take care!