We contacted Fruit Loops Manufacturer (Kellog’s) to get to the bottom of this question. Both the Australian and US/Canadian manufacturers said that Fruit Loops are not vegan. The UK and Europe have vegan Fruit Loops, although they’re not very easy to find in every country and may not always be vegan, so ensure you check for the ingredients mentioned later on in this article.
So why are some Fruit Loops Vegan and others aren’t?
Well, for whatever reason Kellog’s, the manufacturer of Fruit Loops, decided to use Carmine coloring (made from crushed beetles) in Australia, and in North and South America they chose to “enrich” fruit loops with a vitamin d supplement. For whatever reason they choose to use a non-vegan vitamin d.
Meanwhile in Europe, especially the UK, they chose to not “enrich” with vitamin d and to use all-natural vegetable-extract for coloring their cereal rather than carmine and other either non-vegan or artificial coloring.
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How Can You Tell If Your Fruit Loops are Vegan?
If you aren’t in the European Union or the UK then it almost certainly won’t be, but this is how you’d do it:
First off you should check if it has Vitamin D3 in it as if it does it’s definitely not vegan. If it passes that test, check if it has Carmine. If it passes that test, then you need to ask if sugar in the country of origin (manufacture) of the fruit loops uses animal bone to whiten the sugar, or if they use alternative (vegan) methods?
What are the Best (Vegan) Alternatives to Fruit Loops?
I’d recommend checking either discount stores or the health/organic section of your local supermarket, and simply reading the ingredient labels of other like-kind cereals in those sections for the above problematic ingredients.
The only alternative to fruit loops that I know of is Cascadian Farms Organic Fruitful-O’s, which are quite tasty in my opinion, however their texture was a little less grainy and more “solid” compared to regular fruit-loops. If you’ve ever had Cheerios the texture is more like that, but with Fruit-loops flavor. They were my favorite alternative, although I’ve only tried them and a couple ones I found from dollar-stores.
- Looking for breakfast foods? You can always be Lazy and just pick up a Denny’s Breakfast, they have tons of Vegan Options!
Are Fruit Loops Bad for you?
While they don’t contain dairy or other unhealthy ingredients they do contain quite a bit of refined sugar and don’t have much fiber in them. That’s fine for starting a day if you eat a low-fat diet, however if you eat fruit loops with something fatty then you could have some blood-sugar problems in the short-term that will likely cause weight gain, and if done for years, potentially diabetes.
A healthier breakfast would be fruit, Ezekiel Bread, oatmeal, Rice Porridge (Chirra), or simply a heartier cereal like shredded wheat squares.
I’m not a big fan of shredded wheat, as the texture isn’t the best, however an excellent alternative would be my personal favorite cereal: Quaker’s Oatmeal Squares. They go fantastic with plant-milk or by their self, much like Fruit Loops, but have tons of fiber and not too much added sugar, while still tasting pretty dang good. They’re also very cheap, especially on Amazon.
Here you can check the whole ingredient list that is not short: Corn flour blend (whole grain yellow corn flour, degerminated yellow corn flour), sugar, wheat flour, whole grain oat flour, modified food starch, contains 2% or less of vegetable oil (hydrogenated coconut, soybean and/or cottonseed), oat fiber, maltodextrin, salt, soluble corn fiber, natural flavor, red 40, yellow 5, blue 1, yellow 6, BHT for freshness. Vitamins and Minerals: Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), reduced iron, niacinamide, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B1 (thiamin hydrochloride), folic acid, vitamin D3, vitamin B12.
