# Jelly snakes

**Canonical URL:** https://sweeties.net/wiki/jelly-snakes/
**Source:** sweeties.net, online pick and mix sweet shop

## Summary

Jelly snakes are long, striped gummy sweets, and some giant ones are over a metre long. What is in them, and why vegan ones can still contain wheat.

## Description

Jelly snakes are gummy sweets shaped like snakes, sometimes striped in two or more colours along their length. They range from bite sized snakes in a pick and mix bag to giants: one UK retailer sells giant jelly snakes, individually wrapped, each over a metre long.
What is in a jelly snake
Recipes vary between makers: see what is in a jelly sweet? As one example, the giant snakes listed by the retailer Sweets and Candy contain:
Glucose syrup and sugar, the main sweeteners.Gelatine, for the chewy, stretchy set: see gelatine in sweets explainedGlycerol, a humectant that keeps the sweet moist and soft.Citric acid and pectin.Flavourings and fruit and vegetable concentrates, from safflower, lemon, radish, apple, pumpkin, tomato, blackcurrant and carrot, for colour.The colours E120 and E133.
The same listing says they may contain traces of milk.
E120: a colour from insects
E120 is carmine, a red colour made from cochineal insects. Along with the gelatine, it means these snakes are not suitable for vegetarians, and some people are allergic to it: see what is carmine?
Vegan jelly snakes
Vegan snakes swap gelatine for plant based setting agents. The same retailer's vegan jelly snakes are made with glucose syrup, sugar, modified starch, wheat starch, pectin, citric acid, colours from turmeric, paprika and copper chlorophyll, black carrot juice, flavouring, coconut oil and carnauba wax: see pectin sweets explained
That recipe shows why the label always matters. The snakes are vegan, but they contain wheat, and the retailer says they are packed where wheat, gluten, soya, milk, peanuts and nuts are handled. Vegan is not the same as allergy free: see wheat in sweets and pick and mix and allergies
In our pick and mix
We sell SW005 by the 100 g. Recipes differ between makers, so the card opens up to show the full ingredients and allergens for the jelly snakes we actually stock.

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