Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Okay, so I saw the awesome "make your own vegan candy corn" link, and I think it's great that we have that option. However, what makes regular candy corn not vegan? Is there candy corn out there that is similar/identical to what is on the shelf, only with vegan ingredients?

As Halloween fast approaches, I find myself walking though the candy isle, pretty certain that most things are not animal-friendly.

Also, I'm curious what vegan folks do for trick-or-treating with the kids? If you bring home a 20 pound bag, and 99% of it's not vegan, what do you do?

Thoughts?


Holy crepe (Fifteen Pounds of Candy) by Amarand Agasi, on Flickr

I never even thought about trick-or-treating vegan. That sounds complicated. Enlighten us, veggie parents.

Most of the candy corn I encounter has egg whites in it.

Peanut chews are vegan, as far as I know skittles are vegan now, most lollipops, twizzlers, I think mike & ike's - all halloween-appropriate. I don't actually give out candy, I just know from eating a lot of junk.

I don't have kids, but I couldn't eat candy when I was a kid. My mom and I did an elaborate trade after trick or treating. I could keep maybe three small pieces, and the rest was traded for erasers, stickers, little toys, hair ribbons, and so on. The negotiating was almost as much fun as putting on a costume and ringing doorbells.

Of course, my mom was left with a bag of candy. I never ended up with 20 lbs of candy after trick or treating, either.

I hand out Swedish fish and skittles. My kids trick or treat, and then trade anything that is non-vegan or that has peanuts/nuts (food allergy issues) for vegan baked goods, which they tend to like better anyway.

I think collecting 20 pounds of candy requires charm and knowing how to play adults, as a child. Kinda scary, really. :)

Most of the candy corn I've seen in stores has honey or egg whites in it.

We're giving out pumpkin shaped bottles of bubbles this year instead of candy. They were on 90% clearance at Target last year, so 80 of them cost something like $5. I'm excited about it!

I'd still check the ingredients. I've still been finding some bags contain gelatin. I've definitely seen bags labeled gelatin-free, too, but maybe not all of the old stock has been used up yet.

http://www.petakids.com/candy.asp has a (non-complete, but pretty big) list of candy that just happens to be vegan.

I don't have kids, but I have thought about what I'll do when I do and they want to go trick or treating. Go through the candy when you get home (what kid doesn't do this anyway?) and separate what isn't vegan. If they're greedy about candy (like I was as a kid--if I got 100 pieces, I was keeping 100 pieces!) maybe buy a bag of (vegan) candy you know they like, and let them swap out non-vegan for vegan candies. Maybe you can donate the leftover non-vegan candy to some good cause?

The trading idea sounds cool, though I am not sure I'd be un-lazy enough to make it happen. (Guess we'll see.)

Someone on the Playground mentioned taking their young kid to march in a yearly Halloween kid parade thing instead of trick-or-treating. That sounds like the best thing to do with little kids, vegan or no. We're doing something similar with the Emperor this year.

I've always loved trick-or-treating, the dressing up, the experience, the social event of it all... I don't want to deprive my kid of that stuff. But even if I wasn't vegan, I wouldn't want my kid eating the crappy candy that goes out at Halloween anyway. So, I dunno.

I swear gelatin is in everything. Even poptarts.

Once my kids are old enough to trick-or-treat I think I'll probably do the trading thing, too.

I hand out Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish, Dots and Airheads. And the mini Chick-O-Sticks if I can find them, but they're elusive.

Only the ones with frosting! I've definitely seen unfrosted ones that were vegan.

This year, target has mini packs of cards with disney characters on them that you can give out for trick or treat. I hate disney, but its better than giving out non-vegan candy.

Also, Dum-dums, Jolly Ranchers, and Blow Pops are vegan, but large bags of those candies can get expensive.
Here is a great resource:http://www.petakids.com/candy.asp (I didn't realize vegetalion already posted the website)

ETA: I usually give out prizes to my preschool students because they have so many allergies and such bad reactions, I won't let them eat anything they didn't bring from home.

Are skittles just vegan in the US? Or does it include us Canadians too? If so, I think I am about to gain some weight ;)

They're also made by Mars, who tests on animals.

I hand out plastic spider rings.

Did not know this about Mars. I will take back the skittles and rely on the fish.

If I give out sesame snaps candy, is that as bad as giving out raisins? I don't want my house egged.
Maybe I'll get a crate of cliff bars and hand them out....

You know, I always grab some bags of "natural" candy from Whole Foods, but it tends to be underwhelming and expensive for what you get. Now that I see this PETA link, I will know what to do instead! I also saw tiny Halloween bags of pretzels, which was exciting. Those are usually vegan right?

We did pretzels and some other stuff last year. The bags of candy corn I saw had gelatin in them making them not even vegetarian.

This year we are handing out:
Swedish fish
Laffy taffy
Peanut chews
Sweet Tarts
Sour patch kids
smarties

Oh my god, are Smarties vegan?! I never really thought about it or bothered to check, but they were always my favorite when I was a kid. Like little chalky candy-flavored chewable vitamins! I was at an office the other day that had a bowl of Halloween candy on the reception desk and someone made a crack about there being nothing good left, just Smarties. And I was like, "I love Smarties!" and they tried to give me a whole bunch, but I didn't take them because I wasn't sure what was in them. Now I am filled with regret.

Everything I've seen says they are and here are the ingredients:
Dextrose, Citric Acid, Calcium Stearate, Artificial Flavors, Colors (Red 40 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, Blue 2 Lake).

The Candy Corn Dots are vegan along with all of their "holiday" flavors.

Do the Candy Corn Dots taste like candy corn, or are they a poor wanna-be candy corn?