{
    "id": 1070679,
    "title": "Are Jelly Babies vegan?",
    "slug": "are-jelly-babies-vegan",
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    "url": "https://sweeties.net/wiki/are-jelly-babies-vegan/",
    "modified": "2026-09-26T14:36:48+01:00",
    "excerpt": "No. Classic Jelly Babies contain gelatine, which comes from animals. Their colours come from plants, but the gelatine rules them out. What a vegan label means.",
    "content_text": "Classic Jelly Babies are not vegan. They come close, with fruit juice for flavour and colours from plants, but they are made with gelatine, and gelatine comes from animals.\nThe ingredients\nA published ingredients list for a 400 g carton of Bassett's Jelly Babies names sugar, glucose syrup, water, gelatine, concentrated fruit juices, citric acid, flavourings and colours. The colours listed are all from plant or natural sources: anthocyanins, paprika extract, vegetable carbon, lutein and curcumin. Recipes can change, so check the pack you buy.\nTake out the gelatine and there would be nothing obviously animal left. But the gelatine is what gives a Jelly Baby its chew, and it is made from collagen taken from the skin, bones and connective tissue of animals, mostly pigs and cattle: see what is gelatine made from?\nOther things vegans check for\nGelatine is not the only animal ingredient that can turn up in sweets. Vegans also avoid several common additives made by or from insects:\nBeeswax, E901, used as a shiny glaze: see what is beeswax on sweets?Shellac, E904, a glaze made from a resin secreted by the lac bug: see what is shellac on sweets?Carmine, also called cochineal or E120, a red colour made from insects: see what is carmine?\nMilk ingredients such as lactose are not vegan either.\nWhat a vegan label means\nIn the UK there is no legal definition of vegan food, but food must be labelled accurately and not mislead. The government's guidance is that a vegan label means no ingredients of animal origin were intentionally used in making the product. Guidance drawn up by the Food Standards Agency in 2006, with the Vegan Society, said vegan should not be used for foods made from or with the aid of animals or animal products, including products from living animals, which is why beeswax and honey rule a food out.\nA vegan label is not an allergy guarantee. The government's guidance also warns that a vegan product can contain traces of animal ingredients through cross contamination, so people with allergies to milk or eggs, for example, should check the allergen information too.\nVegan jelly sweets\nChewy sweets can be made vegan by using plant based gelling agents such as pectin, starch or agar instead of gelatine, with a plant based glaze such as carnauba wax. Look for a clear vegan label: see what sweets are vegan in the UK?\nWe sell Jelly Babies, and also vegan gummy bears and vegan fizzy cola bottles, in our pick and mix.",
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