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Is there anything better than Tic Tacs while traveling? Always perfect pocket size and you never know when you need a mint. I used to hide Tic Tacs in my pockets when I was a kid, because mom and dad didn’t want me to eat candy on a school night. I have so many childhood memories connected to Tic Tacs and now that I have children of my own I would like them to experience Tic Tacs as well. I read the ingredients, but it was hard to tell, are Tic Tacs vegan?
Tic Tac Freshmints, Tic Tac Fruit Adventure and Tic Tac Orange are vegan. All flavors contain magnesium stearate which is commonly derived from pork, but in this case it’s vegan-friendly. We also have the presence of shellac and artificial colors in some of the flavors. The colors are known for beeing tested on animals.
I sent an email to Ferrero, asking where their magnesium stearate is derived from and they confirmed it’s from vegetable origin.
I put together a table below showing which flavors can be consumed by a dietary vegan or an ethical vegan.
| Flavor | Dietary Vegan | Ethical Vegan | Link |
| Tic Tac Freshmints | Yes | Yes. | View On Amazon |
| Tic Tac Fruit Adventure | Yes | No, it contains Yellow 5 & 6, Red 40, Blue 1. | View On Amazon |
| Tic Tac Big Berry Adventure | No | No. | |
| Tic Tac Orange | Yes | No, it contains Yellow 6. | View On Amazon |
| Tic Tac Wintergreen | Maybe | No, it contains Yellow 5 and Blue 1. | |
| Tic Tac Coca Cola | No | No, it contains Shellac and Red 40. | |
| Tic Tac X-Freeze Strong Mint | Maybe | Maybe. | |
| Tic Tac X-Freeze Wintergreen | Maybe | Maybe. |
Tic Tac Ingredients
Let’s take a look at the ingredients.
I have highlighted the ones that we need to dig deeper into.
- Ascorbic Acid
- Beet Concentrate
- Beet Red
- Blue 1
- Caramel Color
- Carnauba Wax
- Citric Acid
- Dextrin
- Dextrose
- Dried Acerola Extract
- Dried Blueberry
- Dried Green Apple
- Dried Raspberry
- Gum Arabic
- Magnesium Stearate
- Malic Acid
- Maltodextrin
- Natural And Artificial Flavors
- Phosphoric Acid
- Red 40
- Rice Starch
- Shellac
- Spirulina Concentrate
- Spirulina Extract
- Steviol Glycosides
- Sugar
- Tartaric Acid
- Water
- Xylitol
- Yellow 5
- Yellow 6
These ingredients are from all the flavors of Tic Tacs that I could find on their website.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Shellac
Another name shellac is confectioners glaze and it comes from a female bug.
She releases goo when eating in the trees and that’s the main ingredient to make confectioners glaze.
Making this ingredient non-vegan.
Questionable Ingredients
Artificial Colors
This is one of the most controversial ingredient, when trying to define if a product is vegan or not.
There are no animal-derived ingredients within the artificial colors in Tic Tacs, but these colors are known for being tested on animals.
Ethical vegans tends to stay from this ingredient, but as a dietary vegan you can consume artificial colors.
That being said, there are several health issues connected to artificial colors such as hyperactivity and headaches.
Sugar & Dextrose
One of the most popular sugars in the candy industry is cane sugar.
In it’s raw for this is vegan, but when refined it can become non-vegan.
A common way of bleaching cane sugar is to use bone char from dead cows.
Since animals are in the production process, this ingredient can be non-vegan.
Caramel Color
Same problem here.
The sugar used could have been refined with bone char.
Magnesium Stearate
This can be derived from animals and plants.
Pork is one the most common sources.
Ferrero confirmed it’s from a vegetable source.
Natural And Artificial Flavors
As with all umbrella terms, anything can be hidden under this label.
Some products tends to use natural flavors derived from animals more than others.
It’s does not say the source of this on the product ingredient label.
Vegan Alternative To Tic Tacs
I searched around and I actually found a great vegan alternative to Tic Tacs.
It’s Hard Candies by a company called YumEarth.
They come in a variety of flavors:
- Peppermint
- Checky Lemon
- Pomegranate Pucker
- Root Beer
- Vitamin C anti-Oxifruits
You can check it out on Amazon.
FAQ’s
Are Tic Tacs Dairy-Free?
Tic Tacs are dairy-free. I could not find ingredient that could potentially have dairy in it.
Are Product Gluten-Free?
Yes. Accordning to their website. Tic Tacs are gluten-free.
Conclusion
Knowing if a product is vegan or not is not that easy today.
A lot of ingredients can be hidden and the source of others can be impossible to track.
That’s why I made this blog.
To help you research the ingredients so you dont have to.
The most troubling ingredient in Tic Tacs is magnesium stearate, that could be derived from pork, but is indeed vegan-friendly since it’s vegetable based.
Some flavors of Tic Tacs are suited for vegans, while others are not, but I still wanted to share more great vegan candy alternatives.
I do recommend their products a lot, but that’s because they are such a great company that really tries to make a difference in the candy industry.
That’s all I had for today.
Stay vegan!
