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Ruffles potato chips are a long-time traditional snack that’s popular with Americans and Europeans alike. Its’ unique shape layered with lots of ridges is scientifically tuned to give the loudest and most satisfying crunch. Perhaps this is why this type of chip has replaced ‘dip’ altogether. With so many flavors that Ruffles potato chips are offering to their loyal fans, are Ruffles Vegan at all?
Ruffles Original and Ruffles All Dress are both vegan, but the rest of the flavors are not. There are milk products added to the other Ruffles flavors, making them non-vegan. While this doesn’t affect the original flavor or all dressed flavor, these chips can be enjoyed by Vegans and Vegetarians alike.
Below you will find a table with flavors together with a brief status overview.
| Flavor | Vegan Status | Link |
| Original Ruffles | Vegan | View On Amazon |
| Ruffles All Dressed | Vegan | View On Amazon |
| Ruffles Sour Cream & Onion | Contains milk | View On Amazon |
| Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream | Contains milk. artificial colors | View On Amazon |
| Ruffles Queso Cheese | Contains milk | View On Amazon |
| Ruffles Lime & Jalapeno | Contains milk | View On Amazon |
| Ruffles Jalapeno Ranch | Contains milk | View On Amazon |
| Ruffles Flamin’ Hot | Contains milk, artificial colors | View On Amazon |
| Ruffles Double Crunch: Hot Wings | Contains milk | View On Amazon |
| Ruffles Double Crunch: Zesty Cheddar | Contains milk | View On Amazon |
This in-depth article will explore the list of ingredients.
We want you to enjoy Ruffles too, but without the worry about wondering what’s hidden inside concerning ingredients.
Be sure to check out our Best Vegan Chips List for more options.
Ruffles Ingredients
With so many flavors, each entry here gives you a generous look at the ingredients for each of their variations. This will give you another look into how Ruffles creates layers of flavors using traditional and non-traditional ingredients.
We found the following flavors:
- Original Ruffles
- Ruffles All Dressed
- Ruffles Sour Cream & Onion
- Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream
- Ruffles Queso Cheese
- Ruffles Lime & Jalapeno
- Ruffles Jalapeno Ranch
- Ruffles Flamin’ Hot
- Ruffles Double Crunch: Hot Wings
- Ruffles Double Crunch: Zesty Cheddar
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In each flavor we have highlighted the non-vegan ingredients as well as some questionable ingredient.
These ingredients will be explained in detail further down.
Original Ruffles
Potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, and/or canola oil), and salt.
Ruffles All Dressed
Potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, and/or canola oil), all dressed seasoning, sugar, sodium diacetate, salt, dextrose, Torula yeast, monosodium glutamate, spices, sodium acetate, garlic powder, onion powder, sunflower oil, malic acid, paprika extracts, and natural flavors.
Ruffles Sour Cream & Onion
Potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, and/or canola oil), sour cream & onion, seasoning (whey, natural flavors, onion powder, salt, buttermilk, sour cream, cream, skim milk, cultures), skim milk, maltodextrin (made from potato), monosodium glutamate, canola oil, parsley, yeast extract, and gum arabica.
Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream
Potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, and/or canola oil), cheddar & sour cream seasoning (maltodextrin made from corn), salt, whey, cheddar cheese, milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes, onion powder, corn oil, monosodium glutamate, natural and artificial flavors, buttermilk, canola oil, sour cream (cultured cream, skim milk), lactose (milk sugar), butter (cream and salt), sodium caseinate, yeast extract, citric acid, skim milk, blue cheese (milk cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), lactic acid, garlic powder, artificial color (yellow #5 & 6), whey, protein isolate, sunflower oil, and milk protein concentrate.
Ruffles Queso Cheese
Potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, and/or canola oil), queso seasoning (salt, whey, a maltodextrin made from corn, whey protein concentrate, monosodium glutamate, cheddar cheese made from milk cheese cultures, salt, and enzymes, natural flavors, citric acid, spices including chili pepper, yeast extract, sunflower oil, blue cheese, gum arabic, onion powder, buttermilk, paprika extracts, sour cream, butter, lactic acid, garlic powder, corn syrup solids, skim milk, and annatto extract.
Ruffles Lime & Jalapeno
Potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, and/or canola oil), lime and jalapeno seasoning, salt, sugar, natural flavors, dextrose, onion powder, jalapeno pepper, lime juice concentrate, yeast, buttermilk, sour cream, garlic powder, spices, whey, yeast extract, and artificial flavors.
Ruffles Jalapeno Ranch
Potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, and/or canola oil), jalapeno ranch seasoning, onion powder, whey powder, skim milk, garlic powder, spices, sour cream, monosodium glutamate, dextrose, tomato powder, sunflower oil, dried red bell pepper, natural flavors, malic acid, and sugar.
Ruffles Flamin’ Hot
Potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, and/or canola oil), flamin’ hot seasoning, salt, sugar, monosodium glutamate, yeast extract, sunflower oil, citric acid, cheddar cheese, artificial color (yellow #6), onion powder, whey, corn syrup solids, buttermilk, Romano cheese, salt, whey protein concentrate, garlic powder, natural flavors, sodium caseinate, and sodium diacetate.
Ruffles Double Crunch: Hot Wings
Potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, and/or canola oil), hot wings seasoning, salt, natural flavors, monosodium glutamate, spices, onion powder, chicken fat, garlic powder, yeast extract, citric acid, brown sugar, paprika extracts, butter, chicken broth, chicken powder, and skim milk.
Ruffles Double Crunch: Zesty Cheddar
Potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, and/or canola oil), zesty cheddar seasoning, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, cheddar cheese, whey, spices, sour cream, sugar, monosodium glutamate, natural flavors, yeast, paprika, dried red and green bell peppers, skim milk, yeast extract, and caramel color.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
As you can see from the ingredient section, there is a lot of cheese, cream, and milk products contained in each of these chips. These ingredient are not vegan because they come from animals.
- Milk
- Skim milk
- Whey
- Cream
- Sour cream
- Butter
- Buttermilk
- Cheese
- Cheddar cheese
- Romano cheese
- Blue cheese
- Milk cheese cultures
- Chicken broth
- Chicken powder
- Sodium caseinate – made from milk
We do however have 1 more ingredient that is not vegan and this ingredient needs further explanation.
Artificial Colors
There are two sides to the animal testing camp that argue that yellow #5 and 6 are a concern.
Honestly, it’s hard to think that this is being tested on mice and rabbits but it does.
Privately funded testing agencies routinely test new products in foreign countries and across Europe.
This is typical for cosmetics and skin creams that require testing to be FDA approved.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
As if this is going to be an issue after seeing all the previous ingredients, sugar does have a concern.
The fact it reaches this list is being impartial to the kind of sugar that Ruffles may be using.
They may very well be using beet sugar or brown sugar.
Since Ruffles does use a lot of salt, the presence of sugar may be used to balance a salty bite.
As we all may know, refined cane sugar uses bone char to help whiten the sugar’s appearance.
Citric Acid
This is not so much a danger as it is a moral look at the production of GMOs that are sued to produce citric acid.
Much of the supply that comes from China is made from GMO created processes that aren’t monitored closely.
This is debated for safety reasons but the fact that there has been genetic modification on citrus is largely unknown.
Artificial Flavors
If you have a sneaking suspicion that there are weird artificial flavors in your food, Ruffles aren’t too suspicious.
They are adding chicken powder that does relate to artificial flavor, so I do feel it’s made of actual chicken.
As for the added flavors, it’s always a concern where these flavors come from aside from natural flavors.
Related Questions
Are Ruffles Vegetarian?
If you are following the Lacto-Ovo or a Lacto vegetarian diet, then you can enjoy more than just the Original flavor. Every flavor they offer except the Double Crunch Hot Wings since this flavor has chicken broth and chicken powder added. If you happen to be a Ovo vegetarian, then only the Original Ruffles and All Dressed can be consumed.
I made a table below to help you find Ruffles flavors that suits your vegetarian lifestyle.
| Flavor | Vegetarian Status |
| Original Ruffles | All Vegetarians |
| Ruffles All Dressed | All Vegetarians |
| Ruffles Sour Cream & Onion | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto |
| Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto |
| Ruffles Queso Cheese | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto |
| Ruffles Lime & Jalapeno | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto |
| Ruffles Jalapeno Ranch | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto |
| Ruffles Flamin’ Hot | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto |
| Ruffles Double Crunch: Hot Wings | Contains chicken |
| Ruffles Double Crunch: Zesty Cheddar | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto |
Are Ruffles Gluten-Free?
Ruffles contain ingredients that have gluten in them.
Even though potato is gluten-free, the added ingredients that make up the flavors of Ruffles is going to have gluten.
If you want to avoid gluten, you must eat the original Ruffles to avoid any gluten.
Are Ruffles GMO-Free?
This product does contain ingredients that are made using GMOs.
This includes citric acid and many food preservatives.
More Vegan Chips Options
It’s great that ruffles have 2 vegan flavors but I wanted to share more vegan options.
I hope you find chips that suits your vegan lifestyle.
Conclusion
2 out of 10 Ruffles flavors beeing vegan is not bad at all.
The vegan diet is becoming more and more popular due to the rising awareness of animal cruelty and the fact that we are in a environmental crisis.
Not only that the diet also contributes to good health.
I want to remind you that even tho a product does not contain animal products it doesn’t aways mean the product is vegan. My goal is to spread this knowlegde.
Thanks for reading, take care!
