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Twisties was introduced in the 1950’s and has been a favorite snack for a lot of families ever since. With a wide range of flavors, Twisties can fit a lot of taste buds. However, are Twisties vegan?
Only one flavor of Twisties can be considered vegan and that is Twisties Chipster Chips Hot & Spicy. There is a note tho, that they can come in contact with milk and shrimp in the production process. All other Twisties flavors contains milk, egg or chicken fat, making them non-vegan.
Below is a table of Twisties flavors and its vegan status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Twisties Cheeky Cheese Corn Puffs | No, contains Milk. |
| Twisties Cheese & Onion | No, contains Milk. |
| Twisties Cheese | No, contains Milk. |
| Twisties Extra Cheese | No, contains Milk. |
| Twisties Cheeseburger | No, contains Milk. |
| Twisties Chicken | No, contains Chicken Fat and Milk. |
| Twisties Chipster Chips Hot & Spicy | Vegan, but could contain milk and shrimp from production. |
| Twisties BBQ Curry | No, contains Milk. |
| Twisties Extreme Cheese | No, contains Milk. |
| Twisties Cherry Tomato | No, contains Egg. |
| Twisties Chilli Cheese | No, contains Milk. |
| Twisties Sawadee Thai Sweet Chilli | No, contains Milk. |
Twisties Ingredients
Below are ingredients that can be found throughout the flavors of Twisties that I found.
- Salt
- Acidity Regulators (E331
- Buttermilk Powder (Milk)
- Canola Oil
- Carotene
- Cheese Powder (Barley Milk)
- Cheese Powder (Milk)
- Chicken Fat
- Corn
- Cream Powder (Milk)
- Dextrose
- Flavour Enhancer (621)
- Lactic Acid
- Garlic Powder
- Maltodextrin
- Milk Powder
- Mineral Salt (Potassium Chloride)
- Mustard Powder
- Natural Colour (Paprika Extract & Turmeric)
- Non-Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Palm)
- Onion Powder
- Rise
- Salt
- Sugar
- Soy
- Tomato Powder
- Vegetable Fat Powder
- Whey Powder (Milk)
- Yeast Extract
- Monosodium Glutamate
[source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Milk
There several ingredients made from cows milk that can be found in Twisties.
- Cheese Powder
- Cream Powder
- Whey Powder
- Milk Powder
- Buttermilk Powder
Since it’s made from cows milk, this ingredient is non-vegan.
Chicken Fat
Nothing much to say here, chicken fat is derived from chickens and not vegan-friendly.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
Sugar is an interesting and very discussed ingredients within the vegan community. There are two common sources of sugar in the candy industry and that’s cane sugar and beet sugar. Cane sugar being by far the most popular sugar.
Why would this be a problem? Well in order to make the cane sugar fit sweets and snacks, it needs to be refined. The most common practice in refining cane sugar is to bleach it using bone char from dead cows. This makes this ingredient something that vegans needs to look out for.
Some vegans tends to not be bothered by this, while others say no to sugar that has been bleached with bone char. Now there is no evidence that the bone char would somehow contaminate the end-product, but the mere fact that bone char from dead cows is used, can make sugar non-vegan.
If the sugar used is however beet sugar, then that is 100% vegan-friendly. There is no way of knowing the source of the sugar in Twisties and the best way to to simply contact the company and ask.
Palm Oil
Palm oil is also a very controversial topic. The palm oil itself is indeed vegan, because it does not contain any ingredients derived from animals. The problem is the fact massive deforestation is taking place, to make room for palm oil plantation and this forces wildlife to suffer.
Orangutans and Rhinos are some of the animals that are forced from their homes, when the forest is cut down. This has not only made vegans raise their voices, but people all over the world.
Then why is palm oil so popular? Well, that is because the production value per square meter is superior to other vegetable oils, making palm oil very lucrative as an ingredient in many products.
There is something called Roundtable For Sustainable Palm Oil or in short RSPO. This is an non-for-profit organisation that helps companies buy and produce sustainable palm oil with minimum impact on the environment.
Corn & Soy
Corn and soy are two very common GMO crops in USA and the problem here is the high amount of herbicide needed to gain good yields. This leads to damage to the surrounding ecosystems.
Vegan Alternative To Twisties
As of today I could not find any vegan alternatives to Twisties, but once I do I will let you know.
FAQ’s
Are Twisties Vegetarian?
Most flavors of Twisties are vegetarian. Twisties Chicken contains chicken fat and it the only flavor that is not vegetarian.
| Flavor | Vegetarian Status |
| Twisties Cheeky Cheese Corn Puffs | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto. |
| Twisties Cheese & Onion | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto. |
| Twisties Cheese | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto. |
| Twisties Extra Cheese | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto. |
| Twisties Cheeseburger | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto. |
| Twisties Chicken | No, contains Chicken Fat. |
| Twisties Chipster Chips Hot & Spicy | All Vegetarians. |
| Twisties BBQ Curry | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto. |
| Twisties Extreme Cheese | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto. |
| Twisties Cherry Tomato | Lacto-Ovo, Ovo. |
| Twisties Chilli Cheese | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto. |
| Twisties Sawadee Thai Sweet Chilli | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto. |
Conclusion
With veganism becoming more and more popular, companies are adding a vegan option in their product collections. For Twisties, only Twisties Chipster Chips Hot & Spicy can fit the vegan category, but it might not suit all vegans because of the possibility of cross contamination with milk and shrimp.
We can hope that Twisties will launch more vegan options in the future.
Thanks for reading, take care!
