Short answer: fewer than you'd think but more than you'd expect once you know what to check for.
Most people assume sweets are automatically vegan because there's no obvious meat or dairy in a bag of jelly babies. But the UK confectionery aisle hides animal products in places you'd never guess and if you're vegan, or shopping for someone who is, getting it wrong is easier than it should be.
Here's exactly what to look for, which popular sweets pass and fail, and where to find a range that's already been checked for you.
Why aren't all sweets vegan in the first place?
Three ingredients cause almost every problem:
- Gelatine — made from boiled animal skin, bone and connective tissue (usually pig or cow). It's what gives jelly sweets their chewy texture. This is the single biggest reason a sweet isn't vegan.
- Beeswax — used to give some sweets a glossy shine. Not vegan, since it's an animal by-product even though no animal is harmed to produce it.
- Cochineal / carmine (E120) — a red food colouring made from crushed beetles. Found in some red and pink sweets, though most major UK brands have phased it out.
If a sweet is chewy and glossy, gelatine is the first thing to check.
Which popular UK sweets are actually vegan?
Good news first — quite a few household names are:
- Skittles — removed cochineal in 2015, fully vegan in the UK
- Starburst — vegan in the UK (this varies by country, so don't assume the US version is the same)
- Swizzels Refresher Chews, Love Hearts, Parma Violets, Drumstick Lollies — all reformulated to remove gelatine
- Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles — gelatine removed in 2015
- Fry's Turkish Delight — no gelatine, no dairy
And the ones that still catch people out:
- Haribo Goldbears, Tangfastics, Starmix — all contain gelatine, not vegan
- Maynards Wine Gums — contain gelatine
- Almost all standard marshmallows — gelatine-based, unless specifically labelled plant-based
Is vegan the same as vegetarian?
Not quite, and this trips a lot of people up. Vegetarian sweets can still contain dairy, egg, or honey, vegan sweets can't contain any animal-derived ingredient at all, including things like beeswax that a vegetarian diet would still allow. If you're shopping for someone vegan, "suitable for vegetarians" on a label isn't enough on its own, check specifically for the vegan label.
The easiest way to avoid getting it wrong
Reading every ingredients list on every product, every time, is realistic for one shopping trip, not for regularly restocking a pick n mix habit. That's really the whole problem: vegan sweets exist and taste just as good as the originals, but finding them reliably shouldn't be a research project every time.
At Candy Hive, every single product is labelled clearly for diet, vegan, vegetarian, halal, gluten free, dairy free — so you're never guessing or checking small print. If it says vegan, it's been verified vegan. No asterisks, no "may contain," no digging through an ingredients panel on your phone in the supermarket aisle.
[Browse our full vegan sweets range →]
Quick reference: what to check on any sweet packet
- ✅ No gelatine listed (or "gelatine-free" stated)
- ✅ No beeswax or shellac (E904)
- ✅ No cochineal/carmine (E120) — rare now, but still worth a glance on red sweets
- ✅ Look for an explicit "suitable for vegans" statement rather than assuming
If you'd rather skip the label-reading entirely, every product in our [vegan collection] has already been through this check, build your mix, or grab a ready-made vegan gifting jar, and know exactly what you're getting every time.
