When I first became a vegan it was hard to make adjustments to my diet and one of my favorite candy bars was Snickers. So I asked myself, are Snickers vegan? I thought maybe if I’m lucky there is a small chance, but sadly answer is no.
Snickers are not vegan.
Snickers contain milk and eggs which are not vegan.
The vegan diet follows a strict rule, don’t eat anything that comes from animals, related to animal suffering or causes sever enviromental issues.
I made this article because I want to inform people about the truth when it comes to Snickers.
Let’s get started.
What Are Snickers?
Snickers is a nougat, peanut and milk chocolate bar that has been produced since 1930 by Mars Inc. Fun fact the name “Snickers” actually comes the founder Frank Mars favorite horse.
Since then Mars has launched several additional snickers bars such as:
- Snickers & Hazelnut
- Snickers Almond
- Snickers Crispers
- Snickers Peanut Butter
- Snickers Peanut Butter Crisper
- Snickers All Nuts Caramel Xtreme
And you might think well aren’t any of these Snickers candy bars vegan? Sorry no because they use the same base ingredients which we will cover in the next section.
Snickers Ingredients
The ingredients for Snickers candy bars are:
- Milk Chocolate (Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Chocolate, Skim Milk, Lactose, Milkfat, Soy Lecithin, Artificial Flavor)
- Peanuts
- Corn Syrup
- Sugar
- Milkfat
- Skim Milk
- Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil
- Lactose
- Salt
- Egg Whites
- Chocolate
- Artificial Flavor
Non-Vegan Ingredients
As you can see from the list of ingredients that there are a lot of non-vegan ingredients and in this section I will cover them one by one.
Milk Fat
Milk fat in Snickers comes from cow milk which has a very complex nature and the primary goal is to provide nutrition for calves.
Milk chocolate normally use this milk fat for texture and flavor.
This ingredient is 100% not vegan.
Skim Milk
Skim milk is basicly what is left after the milk fat is removed from the whole milk.
This milk normally contains around 1% fat.
And of course this ingredient it not vegan aswell.
Lactose
Lactose is essentionally sugar that is derivered from milk.
Not vegan either.
Egg Whites
Now here is a common question that I have answered in another article “are egg whites vegan?“. Eggs or egg whites are not vegan because it comes from animals.
Questionable Ingredients
There are also some questionable ingredients that could contain animal derived ingredients or cause sever enviromental issues.
These are ingredients that is normally hard to tell if they are vegan or not.
Let’s take a look.
Corn Syrup
Corn is a common GMO crop and this no exception for Snickers.
If the product does not clearly state that it does not contain GMOs with a label from the Non-GMO Project then we must assume that it contains GMOs.
So why is GMO corn not vegan?
Well the main purpose of GMOs is to modify the plant be more resistant to pesticides.
The problem is that surrounding ecosystems takes damage and this does not align with veganism.
Sugar
Wait, could sugar not be vegan?
Well yes some forms of sugar cannot be classified as vegan.
The most used sugar for candy is refined cane sugar and the bleaching process involves mixing bone char (mainly from cows) with the sugar and then filtering this mix through a charcoal filter.
It is highly likely that cane sugar is used in Snickers making this ingredient non-vegan.
Soybean Oil
Again here we a common GMO crop that causes sever enviromental issues.
What is different with a GMO crop like soybeans unlike corn is the high pesticide usage needed. This destroys ecosystems.
This is not an ethical vegan ingredient.
Artificial Flavor
Artificial flavors does not occur naturally in nature and can be derived from plants or animals.
In this case is impossible to know and therefore we don’t know if it’s vegan or not.
Q&A
I took some time to put together a Q&A because I feel like there are more questions that needs to be answered for Snickers.
Are Snickers Vegetarian?
I would say that Snickers are vegetarian.
Snickers are suited for a lacto-ovo vegetarian.
But there are still questionable ingredients, that might not make Snickers vegetarian.
Are Snickers Gluten-free?
I would say that Snickers are gluten-free when looking at the ingredients.
I could not verify this at their website but to be safe be sure to read the ingredients label.
Are Snickers GMO-free?
It does not state anywhere that Snickers are GMO-free so the answer to this questions is no.
Vegan Alternative To Snickers
I could not find a vegan alternative in a form of a product that you can buy but I did find a vegan Snickers recipe you can find here.
Conclusion
Snickers candy bars are not vegan because they contain milk and eggs while as containing some questionable ingredients that are know to cause enviromental issues.
Giving up Snickers when I became vegan was not an easy thing but knowing that no animals are harmed makes me sleep better at night.
When I started the vegan diet it was for health reasons, but it quickly spread to animal cruelty awareness and saving the enviroment for our future generations.
There are plenty for companies that does produce vegan candy but in this case I could not find anything simular to Snickers but I hope you find use of the vegan Snickers recipe I found.
