Is PEZ Vegan 2023? All Flavors Reviewed

PEZ is a company that produces candy dispensers. The company was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Austria. PEZ candy is also produced in USA and Canada, but is PEZ vegan?

PEZ outside of USA and Canada is indeed vegan because it don’t contain any ingredients sourced from animals. PEZ in USA and Canada contains artificial colors making them suitable for dietary vegans and not ethical vegans.

Below is a table showing PEZ flavors and its vegan status.

Flavor	Vegan Status
Assorted Fruit	Dietary Vegan.
Candy Corn	Dietary Vegan.
Cherry	Dietary Vegan.
Grape	Dietary Vegan.
Lemon	Dietary Vegan.
Orange	Dietary Vegan.
Raspberry	Dietary Vegan.
Sour Blue Raspberry	Dietary Vegan.
Sour Green Apple	Dietary Vegan.
Sour	Dietary Vegan.
Sour Pineapple	Dietary Vegan.
Sour Watermelon	Dietary Vegan.
Strawberry	Dietary Vegan.

PEZ Ingredients

Below is a list of ingredients from all the flavors that I could find.

• Sugar
• Corn Syrup
• Adipic Acid
• Palm Kernel & Palm Oil
• Mono & Diglycerides
• Natural & Artificial Flavor
• Red 3
• Yellow 5
• Yellow 6
• Blue 2

[Source]

As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.

Questionable Ingredients

Sugar

Sugar is a very discussed ingredient within the vegan community. The main cause of this discussion is possibility of bone char from dead cows being used in the production process. The two most common types of sugar are beet sugar and cane sugar.

Beet sugar is always 100% vegan-friendly, but cane sugar might not always be. The cane sugar is often refined before used in candy and in this process the sugar is also bleached. A common method to bleach cane sugar is to use bone char.

Exploiting animals in the productions process does not align with veganism. Many vegans tends to stay away from refined cane sugar, but the problem is that it’s not disclosed on the ingredients label that often. It often just says sugar.

Palm Oil

This is an highly controversial ingredient and not only to vegans, but to many people around the world. The palm oil industry is responsible for a severe deforestation that is harmful for the environment and detrimental to the wildlife that are being forced from their natural habitats.

There is a way for the palm oil to be more vegan-friendly and it’s called RSPO. It’s a non-profit organisation that helps companies produce and buy sustainable palm oil.

Natural & Artificial Flavor

Natural flavor is an umbrella term, which means that it consists of several ingredients. This makes it hard for vegans to determine if it’s vegan-friendly or not and the reason for this is because the source of all these ingredients are not disclosed on the ingredients label.

The only ingredient that is shown is natural flavor. So it could potentially contain ingredients sourced from animals and there is no way of knowing it just by looking at the ingredients label.

Artificial Colors

Artificial colors is another controversial ingredient within the vegan community. The reason for this is the animal testing that has been done in the past and maybe still going on. Exploiting animals like this does not align with veganism.

There are other methods of testing such as computer simulation and using human tissue. There are also several health issues connected to artificial colors such as hyperactivity in kids. Ethical vegans tends to stay away, while dietary vegans might consume these colors.

Corn

The reason I mention corn is because it’s one of the most common GMO crops in USA. GMO crops requires a high amount of herbicide and the problem with this is the possibility that is contaminates the surrounding environment, damaging it beyond repair.

Mono & Diglycerides

This ingredient could be sourced from animals or plants.

Conclusion

As mentioned earlier, it’s amazing that all flavors of PEZ candy are vegan outside of USA and Canada. PEZ in USA and Canada is not suited for ethical vegans, but dietary vegans might choose to eat PEZ because of the artificial colors.

Thanks for reading, take care!