Fruit Roll-ups should be just rolled-up fruits and nothing else. Life would be so sweet if everything was just how it appeared to be. Fruit Roll-ups are undeniably irresistible. Growing up, I thought I would outgrow my childish taste buds, but I didn’t. I hope you also haven’t.
Fruit Roll-ups definitely promise us sweet times as long as they are in our mouths, but are Fruit Roll-ups vegan?
Veganism comes with a lot of responsibility. If you have just turned vegan, you probably don’t know the answer to this question. If this question haunts you with guilt every time you bite into your loud and sweet calling, we are here to help. Your heart-warming little bundles of joy are indeed vegan.
Are Fruit Roll-Ups Vegan?
Yes, Fruit Roll-Ups are vegan. They do not contain any animal products, such as gelatin or Carmine. They comprise of only a few basic ingredients, consisting mostly of fruit puree, corn syrup, and natural flavors.
Contrary to the expectations of many vegans, Fruit Roll-ups are vegan. Many doubts have been prevailing around the possible non-vegan ingredients in this beloved and innocent candy. We are here to finally lift the veil.
Do Fruit Roll-ups contain gelatin?
If you’ve heard the clamour around Starburst candies, you probably have a premonition of what to expect. Fruit Roll-ups are just as chewy and soft with a sweet fruity texture that feels natural. Animal-based products are often used for attaining these results in foods. Manufacturers predominantly used gelatin to make candies of this sort.
You must be already aware, gelatin is the transparent substance used to give the soft and chewy feel to foods, mainly candies. Gelatin is made by boiling skins, bones, tendons, and ligaments, of innocent animals in water and filtering the final products.
Thankfully, you will not find gelatin listed in the ingredients behind Fruit Roll-ups. There is no evidence to suggest that the company utilizes gelatin at all in this product.
Fruit Roll-ups contain plant-based pectin which gives them the same chewy and soft feel. Pectin is a polysaccharide present between plant cell walls. Other substances like xanthan gum and carrageenan are also used as ingredients in Fruit Roll-ups and are listed behind the package.
While xanthan gum is derived from microbes by bacterial fermentation, carrageenan is a plant-based gum. There has been some controversy around xanthan gum because the fermenting bacteria are at times cultivated on lactose which is the sugar in milk.
But this small amount of lactose means no harm to our bigger vegan goals of actually eliminating all food that results from animal-cruelty.
Do Fruit Roll-ups contain egg albumin?
Manufacturers of fruity and fruit-filled candies often utilize the aerating potential of egg albumin. While this may be true for most other candies, Fruit Roll-ups do not contain egg albumin.
Do Fruit Roll-ups contain beeswax or confectioner’s glaze?
Vegans look at shiny candy and decide the next steps for themselves. They step away and don’t look at it again.
It is common for vegans to presume that shiny candies contain beeswax, confectioner’s glaze, or some other animal-derived product they’d never want in their plate.
Thumbs up to Fruit Roll-ups. They have achieved the same timeless candy shine without using any beeswax or confectioner’s glaze. Fruit Roll-ups use a plant-based wax instead of the more predominantly used non-vegan waxes.
In case you aren’t aware, beeswax is stolen from bees and many bees are often killed in the process. Confectioner’s glaze is obtained from a particular species of lac insect whose life is sacrificed for the shine on many candies.
When it comes to beeswax and egg albumin, Fruit Roll-ups are undeniably vegan.
Are Fruit Roll Ups gluten and dairy free?
Yes, Fruit Roll-Ups are both gluten and dairy free. They do not contain any animal products, gluten, or artificial flavors. Their ingredients are mostly fruit puree, corn syrup, and natural flavors. As such, they are safe for those with celiac disease or lactose intolerance to enjoy.
Despite the absence of major non-vegan ingredients commonly present in fruit candies, Fruit Roll-ups have remained under scrutiny for containing some major problematic ingredients that strict vegans tend to avoid.
There are controversial ingredients in Fruit Roll-ups that you should be aware of
Superficially, Fruit Roll-ups appear to be perfectly vegan with no trace of animal derived ingredients. If you carefully scrutinize the list of ingredients, you’ll find some ingredients that are controversial. These are processed sugar, palm oil, monoglycerides, natural and artificial flavors, and food colorants.
Strict vegans refrain from consuming processed sugar
You may have often come across vegans who don’t consume processed sugar and packed foods with processed sugar in them. This is because many sugar factories in America use bone char to filter and bleach their sugar.
Bone char is a black absorbent substance that effectively turns brown cane sugar into white by absorbing all the unwanted impurities. The problem lies in how bone char is produced.
Bone char is the final product when cattle bones are burned for long durations in combustion chambers. Although traces of bone char are not passed in the final refined sugar, vegans don’t want to consume any product whose production involves animal cruelty.
It is also true that many sugar factories do not use bone char at all. It is known that as many sugar factories in America use other means to filter and bleach their cane sugar. One such technique involves the use of granular activated charcoal. This substance effectively renders sugar the desired white coloration.
It is also common for producers to derive sugar from coconut or beet instead of cane. So it is not right to assume that all sugar is filtered with bone char, because it is not.
Palm oil is produced unethically and at the cost of our planet
Palm plantations have brought devastation in the lands where they have been cultivated. The lush evergreen rainforest has been completely wiped out to clear space for these plantations that only release more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. The rampant and widespread deforestation coupled with the release of methane has brought hell for global warming.
Environmentalists are also concerned about the many rare species of plants that have been lost forever to the mindless clearing of dense forests. The loss of plant species triggers the loss of all animals and insects dependent on those plants.
The gross reduction in trees has resulted in habitat loss for a large number of wild animals who have been pushed towards fast endangerment. Many animals are now at a high risk of extinction because of this one sole activity of palm plantation. The animals in danger include the Orangutan and the Bornean Pygmy Elephant and several others that were once abundant in these forests.
Apart from the environmental impact, palm oil cultivation also has horrifying social impacts. The laborers that toil in these plantations are unethically bonded by inhumane contracts. The basic necessities of life are denied to them.
Families of laborers work endlessly in these plantations often without sufficient food. This state of dystopia harbors children born with deficiencies and later on subject to malnutrition and serious illness.
There is no reason to continue the consumption of palm oil. It has caused enough devastation that wouldn’t be recovered in the next hundred years. Vegans must care to refrain from products that have bad ethical and environmental impacts.
Monoglycerides can at times be problematic
If the manufacturers make the sources of their ingredients clear, there is nothing left for vegans to speculate. Since they haven’t, many vegans ponder upon the possible sources of these ingredients.
Monoglycerides can be obtained from both plant and animal-based fats. Since we don’t know where the monoglycerides in Fruit Roll-ups are obtained from, strict vegans avoid the candy altogether.
Natural and artificial flavors could always be non-vegan
Natural and artificial flavors are a topic of common concern amongst vegans. The FDA states that these flavors can be obtained from all sources that are edible. This includes both plant and animal-based sources.
Since it is common for manufacturers to obtain strawberry and raspberry flavors from animal-based sources, it is expected of vegans to judge FRuit Roll-ups for their possible roll-ups!
Is there anything like ‘vegan-friendly food colors’?
Vegan friendly food colors are a possible myth. Unless it is turmeric and other such plant-derived genuinely vegan colorants, most others are never vegan.
Many of these apparently vegan food colorants are obtained from petroleum or are prepared artificially in a lab. They are called vegan because they aren’t obtained from an animal-based source. But is that all?
The Red 40 food colorant present in Fruit Roll-ups is obtained from petroleum but it is tested on animals in a laboratory to ascertain its safety of use in humans. Many animals die suffering from the adverse effects of these colorants. The ones that survive with adverse effects are killed.
It is ethically incorrect to consume products that rely on animal testing. Food colorants are not as essential to foods as the lives of those poor animals.
So are Fruit Roll-Ups Vegan?
Yes, Fruit Roll-ups are vegan. They do not contain any animal products or derivatives. However, some vegans may object to their use of palm oil and natural colors. Overall, though, these tasty treats are suitable for a vegan diet.
Fruit Roll-ups do not have any direct non-vegan constituents. There are some problematic ingredients like palm oil and artificial colors that not all vegans denounce.
It is entirely up to you to decide whether you can eat Fruit Roll-ups or not. If you are a strict vegan who refrains from the consumption of processed sugar, they are non-vegan. In case you are more ethically responsible and avoid the consumption of palm oil and artificial colors, Fruit Roll-ups are not vegan.
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