We get asked this one a lot - it turns out we're a nation who love sweet treats and when you won't or can't eat animal products, your normal dairy milk bars and Haribo go straight out the window!
Full disclaimer, we're going to look the other way when labels say 'may contain traces of...'. We understand some people take issue with this, but the majority of the time it says that out of an abundance of caution for the safety of consumers and because the company has a factory where they make multiple products. For us, it's not intentionally in there, and while that might not be enough for you, we are OK with that! Also, we've gone for general product lines, some places might have slightly different recipes, so just sanity check before you buy them! If you think of anything we've missed let us know!
Chocolates
Vegan Galaxy
When we discovered this stuff in Tesco we were so excited and it's genuinely amazing - read the full review here. It tastes like milk chocolate, the flavour options they offer are good - there's orange, sea salt and caramel and an almond option - orange is a winner in our book! The only slight downside is that it's usually £3 a bar and only on sale in Tesco (that we can find). Hopefully that will change over time as it becomes more popular.
Bourneville Yep - turns out if you love dark chocolate you'll be spoilt for choice being plant-based. Dairy Milk's Bourneville range is accidentally vegan and you can get the regular variety or they have an orange one which is amazing too.
Hotel Chocolat
Definitely check out their range if you like dark chocolate. The praline batons and the Gianduja bomb truffles are really good if you like something closer to milk. If dark chocolate and ginger is your thing, they have tonnes of the stuff!
Love Raw
If you like Kinder Buenos then you need these in your life. They're the best vegan alternative! Get yours here. They've also just launched a vegan white chocolate version which we're trying to get our hands on!
Other brands
Most supermarkets have their own 'free from' ranges now and from time to time you'll see other brands like Nomo. These are all okay, but we've listed our favourites above. After all, there's no point testing all of them, when we've done the 'hard work' for you!
Dark chocolate
If you like dark chocolate and choose to go vegan then you'll probably be absolutely fine. The majority of dark chocolate doesn't contain milk, but it's always worth double checking. If you're not a fan of dark chocolate try some of the alternatives, but we've found Bourneville Orange is a good every day chocolate bar because the orange bits make it that extra bit sweeter.
Biscuits
There's no point us reviewing biscuits here; most people will know what they taste like, but here's what's available and what's vegan at the moment:
Bourbons (90% of them are, just double check)
Jammie Dodgers are now back on the menu too!
Oreos
HobNobs Plain or Chocolate Chip (These exact ones only, not normal HobNobs)
Foxes Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies (Only these exact ones though!)
McVities Ginger Nuts and Fruit Shortcake
McVities Plain Digestives
Pink Wafers
Subway's Vegan cookies - review here.
Bakery
It's annoying how often bakery bought foods contain butter or milk products - even the naan bread at the Indian does! But, there are some options, even if they're not all at the bakery.
Just Rol Croissants, cinnamon swirls and pain au chocolat (YES!)
Apple Strudels
Bramley Apple Pies (including Apple and Blackcurrant versions)
Some Jam Doughnuts - the multipack of mini ones from Spar for example
Mr Kipling Treacle Tart
Crumpets
Betty Crocker Devil's Food Cake Mix (it makes an amazing chocolate cake and you can use Betty Crocker Frosting to top them too!)
Sugary Sweets
As a general rule, if they're boiled sweets then they're fine. Think lemon sherberts, humbugs and that sort of thing. But, be careful for hidden milk, which rules out most fudges, Worther's original and anything which has a creamy taste really! Here are some examples:
Candy Kittens (Sour Watermelon is amazing!)
Millions
Mint Imperials
Hartley's Jelly
Fry's Peppermint/ Raspberry Creams
The 3 for £1 sweet mixes in supermarkets often have Vegan options!
Other bits
Some things that don't fit nicely into our sections above are:
Metcalfe's popcorn
Knock off Nutella! (Often supermarket own brand hazelnut spread alternatives are vegan!)
What to watch out for?
Sometimes sweets don't have the vegetarian or vegan friendly writing on them. In that case we'd recommend scanning the ingredients for the bolded ingredients. Here you can see quickly any milk derivatives which we can quickly rule out. Sometimes ingredients are hidden behind their E-numbers though, in those cases here are the common ones to look out for:
Carmine (E120)
Gelatine (E441)
Milk and milk derivatives, like: butter, whey and sodium caseinate (E469)
Beeswax (E901)
Shellac (E904)
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