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Popchips have been around since 2007 with a wide range of flavors. Whether you are having a party or just a chill movie, Popchips will fit the occasion. However, are Popchips vegan?
Popchips Sea Salt is vegan because it don’t contain any ingredients derived from animals. The rest of the flavors contains milk making the non-vegan.
Below is a table of all Popchips flavors and its vegan status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Popchips Sea Salt | Vegan. |
| Popchips Sea Salt & Vinegar | Maybe, contains Natural Flavors. |
| Popchips Fully Loaded | No, contains Milk. |
| Popchips Sour Cream & Onion | No, contains Milk. |
| Popchips BBQ | Maybe, contains Natural Flavors. |
| Popchips Aged White Cheddar | No, contains Milk. |
| Popchips Crazy Hot | No, contains Milk. |
| Popchips Fiery Buffalo | No, contains Milk. |
Make sure to check out our article where we analyze over 30 potato chips brand to find out which potato chips are vegan.
Popchips Ingredients
Below are the ingredient that can be found through of the Popchips flavors.
- Annatto Extract (Color)
- Ascorbic Acid
- Brown Sugar
- Buttermilk
- Cane Sugar
- Cayenne Pepper
- Cheddar Cheese
- Cheese Cultures
- Citric Acid
- Cultured Non-fat Milk
- Dried Parsley
- Enzymes
- Garlic Powder
- Gum Arabic
- Jalapeno Powder
- Lactic Acid
- Maltodextrin
- Milk
- Milk Fat
- Natural Flavors
- Onion Powder
- Paprika
- Parsley
- Potato
- Potato Flour
- Potato Starch
- Rice Flour
- Salt
- Sea Salt
- Skim Milk
- Sour Cream Powder
- Spices
- Sugar
- Sunflower Oil
- Tapioca Maltodextrin
- Tapioca Starch
- Tomato Powder
- Turmeric Extract (Color)
- Vinegar
- Vinegar Powder
- Whey
- Whey Protein Concentrate
- White Distilled Vinegar
- Yeast Extract
[source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Milk
There are several ingredients that contains milk such as cheese, whey and milk that can be found in several flavors of Popchips. Cows milk is not vegan.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
Sugar can be a tricky ingredient because it can be made from several sources. Brown sugar and cane can be found on some labels and this can be troubling for some vegans. Cane sugar is the most common sugar in the candy and snack industry and this ingredient can sometimes be non-vegan.
The cane sugar is often refined to fit the product better and in this process the cane sugar is also bleached using bone char from dead cows. This is an issue for many because it’s essentially exploiting dead animals in the production process, making the product non-vegan.
Brown sugar is often made from raw cane sugar and that is 100% vegan-friendly.
Natural Flavors
Natural flavors is an umbrella term which means that both non-vegan and vegan ingredients can be found here. There is no way of knowing the source unless it’s disclosed.
There is an interesting article on National Geographic where they disclose the usage of butt goo from beavers in vanilla flavors. This shows that odd ingredients can be found and that vegans needs to careful when it comes to different flavor ingredients.
Enzymes
Enzymes can be made from both plants and animals.
FAQ
Are Popchips Vegetarian?
All flavors of Popchips are vegetarian because the only animal sourced ingredient is milk.
| Flavor | Vegetarian Status |
| Popchips Sea Salt | All Vegetarians. |
| Popchips Sea Salt & Vinegar | All Vegetarians. |
| Popchips Fully Loaded | Lacto-Ovo & Lacto. |
| Popchips Sour Cream & Onion | Lacto-Ovo & Lacto. |
| Popchips BBQ | Lacto-Ovo & Lacto. |
| Popchips Aged White Cheddar | Lacto-Ovo & Lacto. |
| Popchips Crazy Hot | Lacto-Ovo & Lacto. |
| Popchips Fiery Buffalo | Lacto-Ovo & Lacto. |
Conclusion
Two vegan flavors out of eight flavors in total is not bad.
With more and more people switching to a vegan diet, so will the vegan options as well. Many companies are making vegan alternatives for their customers and can only expect to see ever more in the future.
Hopefully Popchips will add more vegan flavors.
Thanks for reading, take care!
