Sour Patch Kids are considered vegan-friendly. The ingredients in Sour Patch Kids do not contain any animal-derived products or by-products.
Typically, Sour Patch Kids’ ingredients consist of sugar, invert sugar, corn syrup, modified corn starch, tartaric acid, citric acid, natural and artificial flavors, yellow 6, red 40, yellow 5, and blue 1. None of these ingredients are derived from animals, making Sour Patch Kids suitable for vegans.
What are Sour Patch Kids?
Sour Patch Kids are a sweet and sour taste of delicious candies. These fruity with chewy snack comes in five classic flavours of lime (green), lemon (yellow), raspberry (blue), orange and cherry (red).
The sensational taste of these soft jellies like sweet surprises can give your taste buds a tangy kick. Candies were first made in Canada in 1970s and then in 1985, they were brought in markets of the United States.
Initially, they were shaped like ‘Mars Men’ by Frank Galatolie because of excited interest in space named as Maynards after that these cute candies were shaped into children. Many exciting flavours were launched in the UK in 2012.
They are all-time favourite candies of children and adults. They are halal and do not contains alcohol and animal-derived products.
Sour Patch Kids Ingredients
There is a difference between British and U.S. gummy bags, American candy bag is bigger and contains 226 gram while UK bag is smaller and contains 160 grams of soft and squishy jellies.
Ingredients of Sour Patch Kids are
- Sugar
- Invert sugar
- Gelatin
- Corn syrup
- Modified corn starch (extracted from plants) it contains less than 2% tartaric acid
- The citric acid (sour acid)
- Natural and artificial colours (vegetable carbon
- Paprika
- Anthocyanin
- Curcumin
- Lutein
Different packets have unique and different flavours and so little difference of ingredients also exists like some of them also consist of fumaric acid and lactic acid as acid regulators (these are non-vegan) Sourness in candy is due to tartaric (organic acids extracted from fruits) and citric acid. U.S. and UK bags have different ingredients.
UK (Maynard) fruit flavour gums contain all ingredients mentioned above with concentrated vegetable extracts of turmeric, stinging nettle and spinach, while American candy is made of corn syrup. These candies get their gooey and sticky texture due to corn starch whereas; gelatin is also used in these candies which are not suitable for vegan consumption.
Bovine gelatin is extracted from bones of animals including cows and pigs in the form of collagen. By considering this big concern for vegetarians and vegans, now gelatin has been replaced by plant extract in the form of pectin as per company announcement.
Some of the bright and attractive colors of Sour Patch Kids are mixture of artificial and natural flavors. According to research artificial are derivatives of coal and petroleum (and also animal testing involves) while natural ones are fruit based.
Flavors of Sour Patch
Sour from outside but sweet from inside these sugars coated magical bags of candies come in huge variety of flavors and textures, American candies are less dense but British jellies are more chewy and dense. These are as follows;
- Sour Patch Fruits, it consists of all original fruity flavors with two additional ones, watermelon in pink and grape in purple natural and artificial colors.
- Sour Patch Kids Berries, it consists of all flavors of berries like strawberry in pink, cherry in red, grape in purple and blue raspberry in blue (it looks like natural blue raspberry dye but it is actually black currant and British people love this flavor while Americans do not)
- Kids Tropical, it consists of all flavors of tropical fruits like paradise punch in pink, tropical twist in orange, pineapple in white and passion fruit in purple.
- Sour Patch Xploderz, it comprises of crackling taste and includes apple strawberry burst in green, grape berry surge in purple, cherry bash in red and raspberry lemonade rush in pink color.
- Sour Patch Chillerz, it consists of menthol coolness and candy bag includes strawberry shiver in red, frozen lemonade in yellow, frosty grape in purple and berry punch chiller in blue color.
- Kids Soda Popz, it comprises of carbonated soda taste and packet is available in UK only, includes apple fizz in green, cherryade in red, cola in brown, tropical in pink and orangeade in orange color (they are only available in New Zealand, Australia and United Kingdom)
Some of the candies are of limited edition and produced during festivals like Halloween themed are produced in specific countries, Zombie Sour Patch Kids and Sour Patch Kids heads and Bodies, for Christmas exclusive edition of Sour Patch Xmas Kids and for Easter Sour Patch Bunnies are made.
Similarly there are other new flavors too like, Sour Patch Peach, Sour apple, watermelon, line ups and connectors.
Conclusion
Most of us have delightful memories of childhood eating these sour chewy candies which gets melts on tongue with sweet puckering taste. They are popular in U.S., UK and France.
Sour Patch Kids is safe to be consumed by vegans probably the only debatable ingredient is sugar (not vegan), artificial flavors. Manufacturers do not confirm gelatin (hidden item). Red color comes from petroleum or coal while blue and yellow color comes from petroleum.
These colors are extensively tested on animals (mainly rats and mice even on dogs too) Most strict vegans do not eat artificial colors or refine sugar that may contain bone char (cattle). It’s up to the vegans to choose wisely by checking the ingredients for their craving.
FAQs – Sour Patch Kids
Q. Do sour patch kids have gelatin?
These mischievous looking sweet and sour candies had controversial vegan ingredient gelatin which is extracted from bones and skin of animals (cows or pigs) in the form of collagen but now Sour Patch Kids contains plant extracts (pectin, agar) which is vegan friendly.
Watermelon flavor have Titanium dioxide in it which is a naturally occurring earth mineral. So most of the Sour Patch kids gummies are listed as vegan due to their plant based source.
Q. Are sour patch Kids bad for you?
According to health point of view they will be toxic if eaten in excess as they have high concentration of sugar with artificial flavoring and fructose corn syrup together make it unhealthy as it contains no nutritional benefits.
Acids in the candy peel off the top layer of tongue and jelly texture sticks to the teeth and eat away enamel thus effecting oral hygiene. It’s safe to eat a limited quantity of these gummy babies.
Q. Can vegetarians have Sour Patch Kids?
The original packet of Sour Patch Kids is vegan except Xploderz and Extreme flavors. Most of the flavors contain sugar and artificial colors which are derived from animals. The vegan friendly flavors are, Original Sour Patch Kids, Sour Patch Kids watermelon, mango, berries and tropical.
Q. What is the most popular Sour patch Kid Flavor?
The most popular Sour Patch Kid flavor is Blue Raspberry, Pink Watermelon and Yellow Mango. All are vegan friendly.
Q. Does America have Sour Patch Kids?
Sour Patch Kids are an American classic. They can be found anywhere in USA. Blue Raspberry was one of the favorite flavors, but recent new favorites are Sour Patch Kids Mango and Sour Patch Kids Watermelon.
Mango gummies contains 110 calories of 0g of protein, fats, 24 g of sugar and 25 mg of sodium in each 7 piece serving bag (5 yellow and 2 blue) whereas, watermelon gummies comprises of 139 calories of 29 g of sugar, 15 mg of sodium, with 0 g of protein and fats in each 11 serving (red 4, blue 1, yellow 6)
