Jelly Belly vegan chewy candies are now a thing.
The California-based candy company’s new assorted vegan gummies come in two varieties: Original and Sour. Instead of gelatin (obtained from the collagen of animals, like cows and pigs), the candies contain tapioca, a starch extracted from cassava root.
Jelly Belly is well known for its uniquely flavored jelly beans, like butter popcorn, piña colada, and toasted marshmallow. And although they’re vegetarian-friendly as they don’t contain gelatin, the company uses beeswax and confectioner’s glaze to coat them. Confectioner’s glaze, also known as shellac, is the hardened secretions of lac bugs.
Shaped like Jelly Belly’s iconic candies, each bag of the new vegan gummies contain five flavors: Apple, Berry, Lemon, Orange, and Very Cherry. In addition to being vegan, the gummies are non-GMO, OU Kosher, and feature colors from natural sources.
Gelatin-Free Vegan Gummies
Jelly Belly isn’t the first candy company to omit gelatin from its ingredient list.
In 2018, data by market research firm Mintel revealed the number of vegan candy launches increased by 140 percent since 2013.
In August 2019, Haribo launched vegan soft jelly sweets. They’re made with a number of plant-based ingredients, including fruit juice concentrates from lemons, oranges, strawberries, and apples. They also contain concentrates from black carrots, radishes, and safflower, a flower commonly used to produce cooking oil.
In early 2019, IKEA launched gelatin-free vegan gummy candy in Europe. Around the same time, Marks & Spencer removed gelatin as an ingredient from its iconic Percy Pig gummies. And in July of the same year, the British retailer released gelatin-free gummy flamingos.
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