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Hot Wheels cereal is a nostalgic treat that has been delighting generations of kids for decades. A cereal based off the beloved toy cars, Hot Wheels cereal first appeared in stores in 1988 and quickly became a hit with kids everywhere. But, is Hot Wheels cereal vegan?
Hot Wheels Breakfast Cereal is not vegan because it contains gelatin.
Below is a table showing Hot Wheels cereal flavors and its vegan status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Hot Wheels Breakfast Cereal with Marshmallows | No, contains Gelatin. |
Hot Wheels Cereal Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients from all the flavors that I could find.
- Blue 1
- Canola Oil
- Corn Meal
- Corn Syrup
- Dextrose
- Gelatin
- Modified Corn Starch
- Natural And Artificial Flavor
- Red 40
- Salt
- Sugar
- Sunflower Oil
- Trisodium Phosphate
- Whole Grain Corn
- Yellow 5 & 6
[Source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Gelatin
Since gelatin comes from animals, it’s not a vegan-friendly ingredient.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
Sugar is known to cause problems for some vegans as it’s possible to be classified as non-vegan if the cane sugar is refined. Two of the most common types of sugar are beet sugar and cane sugar, with the latter being more popular in the candy and snacks industry.
Beet sugar is always vegan and so is raw cane sugar, but the cane sugar is often refined to fit the products and in this process the sugar is also bleached. A common method to bleach the cane sugar is to use bone char from dead cows and this does not align with veganism.
Natural And Artificial Flavor
Natural flavors are often a mix of several ingredients, and the problem with this is that the source of these ingredients are not disclosed. The only time the ingredient is disclosed is if it contains milk or other common ingredients people can be allergic to.
This means that it could very well contain ingredients sourced from animals and vegans would not know this just by looking at the ingredients label.
Artificial Colors
Ethical vegans tend to stay away from artificial colors and the main reason for that is the fact that animal testing is still being conducted. There are other testing methods such as computer simulations that can do the job instead.
Hyperactivity in children is one of the health issues linked to artificial colors.
Corn
The reason I mention corn is that it’s one of the most common GMO crops in USA. The reason why many vegans avoid GMO’s is because it requires a high amount of herbicide to grow and this can pollute the surrounding ecosystem
Trisodium Phosphate
This ingredient can be made from both plants and animals.
Conclusion
It’s too bad that this iconic cereal is not vegan-friendly. The reason it’s not vegan-friendly is because of the marshmallows that contains gelatin. This is not a common ingredient in many other cereal brands, so finding a breakfast cereal that is vegan-friendly should not be a problem.
Thanks for reading, take care!
