Vegan Halloween Candy

 
Trade in your traditional treats for these vegan candy options.

That crisp in the air lately can only mean one thing: Time to dust off that trampy Halloween costume from last year and stock up on candy. 

But before you start passing out treats at the door (or scarfing down a bag yourself), there are some nasty ingredients to look out for in those unassuming sweets. Casein, gelatin (boiled animal parts, ugh), pepsin (stomach enzymes, seriously), stearic acid and urea are just a few of the usual suspects that will ruin a candy's vegan status. Sometimes even plain old sugar is processed with charred bone fragments. We’ll pass, thanks.

Whether you're just wanting to give your tots some animal-friendly treats or need some alternative sweets to throw in the office candy bowl, here's our go-to guide for vegan Halloween candy:

Justin’s Peanut Butter Cups. These are a killer substitute for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, which are filled with milk, milkfat and lactose. Justin’s Peanut Butter cups are rich and delicious, totally vegan and GMO-free.

Annie’s Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks.  Fruity, gummy, mouthwatering bunnies of joy. A fine substitute for classic gummies made with gelatin, these fruit snacks are free of artificial colors and flavorings. They also happen to be good enough for grown-ups to eat.

Holy Cow Vegan Dark Chocolate Beans. These are the vegan answer to M&M lovers everywhere. The name alone makes us want to buy them, but they happen to pack a yummy punch. You’ll swoon for these little tasty morsels that are vegan-, GMO- and artificial anything-FREE.

Surf Sweets.  Surf Sweets are free of GMOs, corn syrup, gluten, dairy and are made in a nut-free facility. They have 100% of your vitamin C needs per serving and are on top of their candy-game with “Spooky Spiders” all ready to hand out to your favorite Halloweenies.

GoNaturally Hard Candies. These are perfect as grab-bag treats. With six vegan flavors available to the masses (cherry, apple, pomegranate, ginger, blood orange and iced mint mango), everyone can find something they’ll love.

Yummy Earth. These guys created a wide range of natural candies to appease parents and children alike, but their lollipops steal the show with flavors like “cheeky lemon” and “mango tango.”

And don’t stress--you don’t have to let go of the nostalgic candy pieces you’ve grown up loving. Plenty of candy classics are vegan. How about Airheads, Dots, Fireballs, Mary Janes, Twizzlers or Lemonheads? All PETA approved as cruelty-free. Even Skittles have gone through animal-product rehab and now rest proudly on the vegan list. Since 2009, Skittles replaced the gelatin, shellac, and E120 (that’s cartilage, bug secretions, and boiled bugs for all of you wondering) with vegan-friendly ingredients. Tasting the rainbow is better than ever. Hurray!

Now that we have these sweet options, let’s get real for a second: Just because it’s vegan doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Many of these goodies can harbor unwanted nonsense like high fructose corn syrup—talk about a creep factor. But when those trick-o-treaters come a-knockin', you can sleep easy knowing you didn’t hand out any goody bags of death and suffering.

Do you worry about handing out vegan Halloween candy? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments section!

Sara Crolick, Contributing Writer
Sara Crolick is a little lady on the quest for all things green, nutritious, and joy-inducing. After a Lupus diagnosis in 2008, Sara revamped her diet and lifestyle, addressing symptoms with good food, a happy spirit, and a whole lot of laughter. Creator of HerbvaceousLady.com, Sara writes from her experiences as a Lupus patient and a thriving vegan. When she’s not spreading love on the web, she’s raising two little humans with her man in Pennsylvania.