Uncrustables can be found on many american breakfast tables. It’s been a reliable breakfast for many people since 2007. With many flavors to suit most peoples taste buds, they are enjoyed by young and old. But, one question still remains, are Uncrustables vegan?
Uncrustables are not vegan. Many non-vegan ingredients such as milk, egg, honey, beef, chicken and turkey can be found throughout the different flavors of Uncrustables. Most flavors also contain mono and diglycerides, which can be made from ingredients derived from animals. Smucker also confirms that none of their Uncrustable flavors are vegan on their FAQ page.
I made a table to show different Uncrustable flavors together with its vegan status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Peanut Butter And Grape Jelly Sandwich | Contains Mono and Diglycerides. |
| Peanut Butter And Strawberry Jam Sandwich | Contains Mono and Diglycerides. |
| Chocolate Flavored Hazelnut Spread Sandwich | Contains Whey. |
| Peanut Butter & Honey Spread Sandwich | Contains Honey. |
| Peanut Butter & Grape Spread Sandwich On Wheat | Contains Mono and Diglycerides. |
| Reduced Sugar Peanut Butter & Strawberry Spread Sandwich On Wheat | Contains Mono and Diglycerides. |
| Uncured Ham & Cheddar Cheese Roll-ups | Contains Milk. |
| Turkey And Colby Jack Cheese Roll-ups | Contains Turkey. |
| Uncured Pepperoni Roll-ups | Contains Milk. |
| Uncured Pepperoni Bites | Contains Milk. |
| Taco Bites | Contains Beef & Milk. |
| Bbq Chicken Bites | Contains Chicken & Egg. |
Uncrustables Ingredients
I went through the flavors of Uncrustables that I found and I listed the ingredients below:
- Beef
- Chicken
- Calcium Chloride
- Citric Acid
- Cocoa Processed with Alkali and Cocoa
- Canola Oil
- DATEM
- Enzymes [with Wheat Starch, Ascorbic Acid, Calcium Peroxide])
- Egg
- Ferrous Sulfate
- Folic Acid
- Fruit Pectin
- Honey
- Grape Juice
- Grapes
- Hazelnuts
- Locust Bean Gum
- Malted Barley Flour
- Molasses
- Mono- and Diglycerides
- Niacin
- Peanuts
- Pectin
- Palm Oil
- Potassium Sorbate (Preservative)
- Riboflavin
- Rapeseed- and Soybean Oil
- Salt
- Skim Milk
- Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
- Soybean Oil
- Strawberries
- Sugar
- Sunflower Lecithin
- Thiamin Mononitrate
- Vanillin (Artificial Flavor)
- Water
- Whey
- Yeast
[source]
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Milk
Anything derived from the animal kingdom is considered vegan.
This applies to milk as well.
The milk come from cows and is meant for baby calves not humans.
Milk is therefore not vegan.
Some of the milk ingredients that can be found in Uncrustables are skim milk and whey.
Whey is protein that is derived from milk.
Turkey, Beef & Chicken
As stated earlier anything from the animal kings is not considered vegan.
Turkey, beef or chicken are not vegan.
Honey
Honey can be a bit trickier sometimes, because some vegans want to eat this.
Bees are technically not an animal, but an insect, however exploiting insects for a product is not vegan-friendly either.
Most of the times, bees are given sugar, while humans take their hard worked honey.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
This is one of the most controversial ingredient in the vegan community and opinions about this can differ a lot depending on who you ask.
Why is sugar a controversial topic?
Well that’s because of the presence of bone char.
Most sugar used when it comes to sweets is refined cane sugar.
The cane sugar in it’s raw has a brown color and is considered vegan-friendly.
The part that makes this ingredient non-vegan is when the sugar is refined.
The process most often that not use bone char from dead cows to bleach the sugar.
Now there are no evidence on that the sugar would be contaminated by the bone char, but just the mere fact that it’s bone char from dead animals is enough to make this ingredient non-vegan.
The origin of the sugar is not disclosed by Smucker, therefore we don’t know if this ingredient is vegan-friendly or not.
Palm Oil
Palm is a hot topic today and with good reason.
A vast amount of deforestation is taking place to make room from palm oil production today and this effects the environment severely not the least the animals living in that forest.
Many orangutans are rhinos are being forced to leave their homes for new plantations and this make this ingredient not vegan friendly at all.
Exploiting and hurting animals are what we vegans want to avoid.
So can palm oil be vegan-friendly?
Well, yes it can by something called RSPO.
The organisation helps companies to produce and buy sustainable palm oil that has minimum effect on the environment.
Smuckers is a RSPO member.
A lot of vegans still avoid palm oil, because of the industry itself can be so detrimental to the animals and the environment.
Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
This ingredient contains stearic acid, which can be made from animals.
So while this ingredient most times is vegan, unless disclosed from the company it is impossible to know if it’s 100% vegan-friendly.
DATEM
Datem is a blend of stearic acid and mono & diglycerides, which can be derived from animals.
Vanillin (Artificial Flavor)
Different flavors, can be derived from both animals and plants.
This vanillin flavors is artificial and can be considered vegan.
However there are instances of vanilla flavors being non-vegan.
National Geographic has an article, on the subject, where they disclose that butt goo from beavers can be used to create vanilla flavors.
Mono- and Diglycerides
Mono- and diglycerides can be made from both plants and animals.
That is why this is put under questionable ingredients.
There is no way to know the source unless you ask the company.
Riboflavin
Riboflavin is a B2 vitamin that can be derived from both animals and plants.
When derived from animals it can be organs such as liver and kidneys, meat, egg or milk.
Vegan Alternative To Uncrustables
I tried to find an vegan alternative to Uncrustables, but I couldn’t.
So my recommendation is to make your own sandwiches, with ingredients you can find in Uncrustables.
You can then make sure that every ingredient you use is vegan-friendly and make a tasty sandwich.
FAQ’s
Are Product Vegetarian?
I made a table below to show the flavors of Uncrustables together with its vegetarian status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Peanut Butter And Grape Jelly Sandwich | All Vegetarians. |
| Peanut Butter And Strawberry Jam Sandwich | All Vegetarians. |
| Chocolate Flavored Hazelnut Spread Sandwich | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto. |
| Peanut Butter & Honey Spread Sandwich | All Vegetarians, but contains Honey. |
| Peanut Butter & Grape Spread Sandwich On Wheat | All Vegetarians. |
| Reduced Sugar Peanut Butter & Strawberry Spread Sandwich On Wheat | All Vegetarians. |
| Uncured Ham & Cheddar Cheese Roll-ups | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto. |
| Turkey And Colby Jack Cheese Roll-ups | Contains Turkey. |
| Uncured Pepperoni Roll-ups | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto. |
| Uncured Pepperoni Bites | Lacto-Ovo, Lacto. |
| Taco Bites | Contains Beef. |
| Bbq Chicken Bites | Contains Chicken. |
Conclusion
Even tho something so simple as sandwiches, sounds like they should be vegan, Uncrustables are not. Many ingredients are derived from animals and some ingredients are that obvious as milk and meat.
More and more companies are producing vegan-friendly alternatives within their own collection of products and we can hope that Smuckers does the same one.
I know a lot of vegans that had this delicious sandwich when growing up and when they turned vegan, the option to eat Uncrustables disappeared.
Thanks for reading, take care!
