Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this article, meaning at no extra cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. (Full Disclosure)
If you’re looking for a barbecue sauce that will take your cookout to the next level, look no further than Sweet Baby Ray’s. This award-winning sauce has the perfect balance of sweet and tangy, and it’s sure to please everyone at your gathering. But, is Sweet Baby Ray’s vegan?
Many flavors of Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce maybe vegan, but they contain natural flavors, which could contain ingredients sourced from animals.
Below is a table showing Sweet Baby Ray’s flavors and its vegan status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Sweet Baby Ray’s Original | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor. |
| Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey Barbecue Sauce | No, contains Honey. |
| Sweet Baby Ray’s Sweet & Spicy | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor. |
| Sweet Baby Ray’s Hickory & Brown Sugar | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor. |
| Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey Chipotle | No, contains Honey. |
| Sweet Baby Ray’s Maple Barbecue | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor. |
| Sweet Baby Ray’s Sweet Golden Mustard | No, contains Egg Yolk. |
| Sweet Baby Ray’s Hawaii Barbecue | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor. |
| Sweet Vidalia Onion Barbecue Sauce | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor. |
Sweet Baby Ray’s Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients from all the flavors that I could find.
- Brown Sugar
- Calcium Disodium EDTA (To Protect Flavor)
- Caramel Color
- Celery Seed
- Citric Acid
- Corn Syrup
- Dijon Mustard (Distilled Vinegar
- Distilled Vinegar
- Egg Yolk
- Fructose
- Garlic (Dried)
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Honey
- Jalapeno Pepper,* Sodium Benzoate (Preservative)
- Maple Syrup
- Modified Corn Starch
- Modified Food Starch
- Molasses
- Mustard Flour
- Mustard Seed
- Natural Flavor
- Natural Smoke Flavor
- Oleoresin Paprika (Color)
- Pineapple Juice Concentrate
- Salt
- Sodium Benzoate (Preservative)
- Soybean Oil
- Spices
- Sugar
- Tamarind
- Tartaric Acid
- Tomato Paste
- Vidalia Onions 7%
- Water
- White Wine
- Xanthan Gum
- Yellow 5
[Source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Honey
Honey is not a vegan-friendly ingredients since it’s exploiting bees in order to get the honey and replacing it with sugar.
Egg Yolk
Egg yolk is not a vegan ingredient since the eggs comes from hens.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
Sugar can be a tricky ingredient for vegans, because there is an instance where sugar could be classified as non-vegan and it involves the presence of bone char. Two common type of sugar are beet sugar and cane sugar, while beet sugar is always vegan, cane sugar might not always be.
The problem with cane sugar is that it often needs to be refined to be used in a 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.
Artificial Colors
This is a highly controversial ingredient because artificial colors are known for being tested on animals. This is a problem for many vegans and animal-testing could still be going on today. There are also some health issues connected to these artificial colors such as hyperactivity in kids.
Natural Flavors
This is an ingredient that vegans needs to look out for, because natural flavors can contain several ingredients and the source could be from animals. If the product is labeled vegan, then natural flavors would be safe or if you contact the company and ask.
Conclusion
Several flavors of Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce contains the ingredient natural flavors and as a vegan we can’t be sure that it’s vegan-friendly. I contacted the company and I’m waiting for the response.
Thanks for reading, take care!
