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Peter Pan peanut butter is an American favorite that has been around for more than 90 years. For generations, people have enjoyed the creamy, nutty flavor of this beloved brand. But, is Peter Pan Peanut Butter vegan?
Peter Pan Creamy Peanut Butter, Crunchy Peanut Butter and Natural Creamy Peanut Butter Spread are vegan because they don’t contain ingredients sourced from animals. On their website they say it’s suitable for vegetarians and not vegans. That is probably because of the risk of cross contamination from production all flavors of peanut butter in the same factory.
Below is a table showing Peter Pan Peanut Butter flavors and its vegan status based on reading the ingredients.
Flavor | Vegan Status |
Creamy Peanut Butter | Vegan. |
Crunchy Peanut Butter | Vegan. |
Creamy Honey Roast Peanut Spread | No, contains Honey. |
Crunchy Honey Roast Peanut Spread | No, contains Honey. |
Natural Creamy Peanut Butter Spread | Vegan. |
Natural Honey Roast Creamy Peanut Spread | No, contains Honey. |
Peter Pan Peanut Butter Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients from all the flavors that I could find.
- Honey
- Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil [Rapeseed And Cottonseed]
- Molasses
- Organic Honey
- Palm Oil
- Roasted Peanuts
- Salt
- Sugar
[Source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Honey
Vegans don’t eat honey because it comes from bees, which goes against the vegan diet.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
This is an highly questionable ingredient because of the possible presence of bone char. The most common sugar types are beet sugar and cane sugar, with the latter being more used 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 product and in this process the sugar is also bleached. A common method is to use bone char from dead cows and exploiting animals in the production process would make the product non-vegan.
Palm Oil
There is a lot of controversy when it comes to palm oil. This vegetable oil is known for its versatility. It can be used as a cooking oil, salad oil and as an ingredient in many products. However, the production of palm oil has been a major issue that many vegans and non-vegans are trying to make a change.
The industry is responsible for a severe deforestation of rainforest to make room for palm plantations and this leads to a lot of wild animals suffering.
There’s an organisation called RSPO that helps companies produce and buy sustainable palm oil with less impact on the environment and this would make the palm oil more vegan-friendly.
Conclusion
It’s amazing that 3 of 6 flavors of Peter Pan Peanut Butter are vegan. The rest of the flavors contains honey, making those flavors not suitable for vegans. Unfortunately honey is a popular ingredient in the peanut butter industry, but luckily original flavors of peanut butter is often vegan-friendly.
Thanks for reading, take care!