Vegan Halloween candy is surprisingly easy to find. More than a dozen different companies make candy varieties that are ideal for handing out to trick-or-treaters.
Keep reading for plenty more options, but if you came here for my #1 choice it’s Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews. These are chocolatey, delicious, and way more satisfying than the brightly-colored sugary candies that dominate this page. Note that since they’re made on the same line as non-vegan candies, they carry a warning that they may contain milk. But that’s a product of cross-contamination that, if indeed present, exists only in trace quantities. The product carries an all-vegan ingredients list.
Vegan Halloween Candy Brands
Below are inexpensive and easy-to-find vegan candies. Most of these candies fall within the sugary, colored, tart genre. In other words, they’re cheap and low-end, but admittedly delicious for kids craving their annual hit of sugary flavors.
All these items are available individually wrapped and packaged in large bags. Most of these products can be conveniently ordered from Amazon.com.
- Airheads
- Atomic Fireballs
- Annie’s Organic Fruit Snacks
- Charms Blow Pops
- Chick-O-Stick
- Dots
- Dum Dum Pops
- Go Max Go Foods (100% vegan)
- Jolly Rancher Hard Candies
- PEZ
- Skittles
- Smarties
- Sour Patch Kids
- Swedish Fish
Note that the sugar used in these candies is commonly filtered through bone char. See my sugar page, and my lengthy “What is a Vegan Diet?” essay to understand why I don’t think this is a big deal.
Individually Wrapped Vegan Chocolates:
If your budget allows, you can of course hand out premium vegan chocolate to trick-or-treaters. Justin’s makes outstanding vegan dark chocolate peanut butter cups that your local Costco may sell at a surprisingly low price—but be careful not to mistakenly purchase the milk chocolate version.
What Animal Ingredients Commonly Appear in Candy?
The vast majority of chocolates handed out at Halloween contains milk products. The root of the problem is the chocolate that goes into mass-market candy is never the premium stuff. And inexpensive chocolate is rarely vegan, since milk chocolate is cheaper than dark chocolate.
Additionally, many brightly-colored soft translucent candies like Gummy Bears contain gelatin. Several companies make vegan alternatives to these gelatin-based candies. Unfortunately, most aren’t individually wrapped, so they’re unsuitable for handing out to trick-or-treaters. But if you’re looking for this sort of thing, please see the Vegan Chewy Candy section of my candy page.
