The Ultimate Guide to Vegan Candy for a Sweet Halloween

In our opinion, you never need an excuse to give into your sweet tooth — but Halloween really is the perfect excuse to ravage the candy aisle. Whether you're looking for candy for local trick-or-treaters, your children, or yourself, we've got you covered with this extensive list of vegan Halloween candy.

Unfortunately, several popular candies contain some pretty odd animal ingredients, such as gelatin (ground up animal bones, tendons, skin, and more), shellac (a resin secreted by lac bugs), and carmine (aka cochineal, a red dye derived from insects).

Oddly enough, a lot of conventional candy that you probably grew up eating just happens to be vegan. Is this "accidentally vegan" candy healthy for you? No, definitely not; but at least it's free of animal ingredients, instead comprised of technically-vegan ingredients like sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and dye. Delish.

Or, if you're looking a bit less syrupy sweet, there are endless other brands that make candy, chocolate bars, and other sweet treats that are less likely to contain synthetic or heavily-processed ingredients, and more likely to even contain vegan certification. 

So read on for the ultimate guide to vegan candy to ensure you have a sweet Halloween.

You can probably find these candies in your local supermarket or drugstore, and you might be surprised to find out that they are all vegan!

• Airheads
• Bottle Caps
• Blow Pops
• Cracker Jacks
• Dots
• Dum-Dums
• Hubba Bubba
• Fireballs
• Fruit by the Foot
• Fruit Roll-Ups

• Fun Dip
• Jolly Ranchers
• Jujubes
• Jujyfruits
• Laffy Taffy (only the fun-sized variety)
• Mike and Ikes (only certain flavors)
• Nerds
• Now & Later (only certain flavors)
• Pez
• Pixy Stix

• Razzles
• Red Vines
• Ring Pops
• Skittles
• Smarties
• Sour Patch Kids
• Starburst
• Swedish Fish (most of the time — in some countries, Swedish fish contain beeswax, so make sure to check)
• Twizzlers.

Here are just a few of our favorite candies (and gums!) that are completely vegan, but a bit less well-known than the ones on the above list. You may not be able to find these at CVS, but you'll probably find them at Whole Foods or a local natural foods store.

• Annie's Fruit Snacks (most flavors)
• The Ginger People (all flavors except for Ginger Soother and Ginger ‘gizer)
• Dandies Vegan Marshmallows (all varieties)

• Jealous Sweets (all varieties)
• Simply Gum
• YumEarth (Organic Lollipops, Organic Hard Candy, Organic Fruit Snacks, Organic Licorice, Organic Sour Twists, Organic Sour Beans, Organic Giggles, Organic Sour Giggles and our Organic Roll’n Stones)

Here's a list of just a few of our favorite companies making delicious vegan chocolates that are perfect for Halloween (or any day).

• Chocolove (only certain dark varieties)
• Cocomels (all varieties, even "milk" chocolate flavors)
• HunnyBon chocolates (all flavors)
• Justin's Nut Butter Cups (dark chocolate varieties only)
• Little Secrets Cripsy Wafers (Dark Chocolate With Sea Salt and Almond Butter in Dark Chocolate With Sea Salt)
• Little Secrets Chocolate Pieces (Sea Salted Peanut in Dark Chocolate, Sea Salted Almond in Dark Chocolate)

• Nelly's Organics (all varieties)
• NoWhey! Foods (all varieties)
• UnReal Dark Chocolate Nut Butter Cups
• UnReal Dark Chocolate Gems (Peanut, Crispy)
• UnReal Dark Chocolate Bars (Caramel Peanut Nougat, Coconut)

That's just a small sampling of some of the companies making epic vegan chocolate bars. Click here for our list of ethical, fair-trade chocolates.

This article, originally published on Oct. 28, 2020, has been updated.