Do All Pop Tarts Have Gelatin? (All You Need To Know) 2024

Last updated on October 26th, 2022 at 05:19 pm

Being a Vegetarian requires abstinence from eating food from animal sources and sticking to those from plants only.

And that means you have to be watchful of the contents of the food you take.

Meanwhile, many snacks, like pop tarts, come in vegan and non-vegan varieties.

But, finding out which is suitable for you might be tiring, except it’s on the label. So, it’s right to find out if all pop tarts are vegan before consumption.

Not all pop tarts have gelatin because some pop tart varieties lack gelatin in them. Only the three flavors of the unfrosted pop tarts, strawberry, blueberry, and brown sugar cinnamon, are gelatin-free. Contrarily, the ones containing gelatin are all the flavors of frosted pop tarts and pop tarts bite, respectively.

Which Pop Tarts Have Gelatin?

All frosted pop tarts contain beef gelatin, giving them a good texture and more protein.

On the other hand, there is no gelatin in the unfrosted ones, but they have an alternative protein source of plant origin.

Some pop tarts have gelatin. Others don’t have gelatin because of the variations across the different pop-tart flavors.

Additionally, this gelatin in frosted pop tarts improves their texture and ensures all their recipes get stability. But they aren’t for Vegans.

This is because gelatin comes from collagen, a product in some areas of an animal’s body.

Here is a list highlighting all of the frosted pop tarts with gelatin.

Frosted maple pop tarts.

Frosted apple fritter pop tarts.

Frosted blueberry pop tarts.

Frosted grape pop tarts.

Strawberry banana pop tarts bite.

Frosted Boston crème donut pop tarts.

Frosted brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts.

Frosted cherry pop tarts.

Frosted chocolate chip pop tarts.

Frosted chocolate fudge pop tarts.

Frosted confetti cupcake pop tarts.

Frosted cookies & crème pop tarts.

Frosted hot fudge sundae pop tarts.

Frosted raspberry pop tarts.

Frosted S’ Mores pop tarts.

Frosted strawberry pop tarts.

Frosted wild vicious wild berry pop tarts.

Simply frosted harvest strawberry pop tarts.

Aside from the gelatin in the above pop tarts, they also contain many dairy products that make them unsuitable for Vegans.

Are All Pop Tarts Vegan?

Not all pop tarts are vegan. Some varieties have gelatin from animal parts like bones, ligaments, skin, or tendons. They also have dairy products like milk in them.

An example of a non-vegan pop tart is the frosted chocolate flavor containing egg white, milk, milkfat, and non-milk fat.

It also includes whey which has less than 2% semi-sweet chocolate chips containing butter and eggs.

Also, pop tart bites are not vegan because they contain milk, gelatin, and other dairy products. However, all these dairy products serve as huge supplies of protein.

On the other hand, only the three unfrosted pop tart varieties are potentially vegan-friendly.

And they include brown sugar, cinnamon, blueberry, and strawberry flavors.

You can easily detect that these unfrosted pop tarts are products of ingredients of plant origin.

The general ingredients in all of them are as follows:

Enriched flour containing wheat flour, reduced iron, folic acid, and niacin. Including vitamin B1 (thiamin mononitrate) and vitamin B2 as riboflavin.

Soybean and palm oil contains TBHQ for long shelf life.

High fructose corn syrup (glucose-fructose syrup). It helps in keeping the freshness of the snacks and sweetening.

Dextrose acts as a sweetener and preservative.

Citric acid.

Salt and cane sugar

Leavening includes baking soda, monocalcium phosphate, and sodium acid pyrophosphate.

Dried apples and pears.

Xanthan gum, modified wheat starch, and soy lecithin. They are all emulsifiers, thickeners, and stabilizers that improve the food’s quality in terms of taste and texture.

However, since the unfrosted variety comes in three different flavors, they tend to have slight differences in their ingredients. Kindly find below the few differences.

#1. Unfrosted Strawberry Pop Tarts

Colors (Red 40, and Yellow 6)

Caramel color.

Dried strawberries.

#2. Unfrosted Blueberry Pop Tarts

Colors (Red 40, blue 1, and 2)

Natural and artificial flavors.

Dried blueberries.

#3. Unfrosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts

Cinnamon

However, there are controversies regarding some of the ingredients in the above lists.

The reason is that there’s a possibility that they might have something to do with animals either as their source or processing agents.

For instance, during the processing of cane sugar, they could sometimes filter the sugar with bone char from cattle bones.

Unfortunately, the company didn’t disclose how they processed their sugar.

Furthermore, after filtration, they could make caramel with the sugar. But if not, a dairy product like butter could also produce caramel for the snacks.

Hence, the probability that unfrosted pop tarts are vegan isn’t one. But, they are much more trusted to be vegan-friendly than the frosted ones.

Do Pop Tarts Have Beef or Pork Gelatin?

Pop tarts have beef gelatin, not pork gelatin, across all its frosted pop tarts variety.

This gelatin usually comes from cow bones which have the most collagen deposit.

In pop tarts, beef gelatin is a protein supplement with a 98-99% composition.

Beef gelatin improves the pop tarts’ texture due to its thickening and stabilizing properties.

It also makes the beef gelatin easy to digest. Furthermore, it assists in having good skin, plus improving the well-being of the bones and joints by strengthening them.

Vegetarians don’t like it being in their meals because it’s of animal origin. Pork and beef gelatin are similar in thickening, stabilizing, and supplying amino acids.

However, there are some slight differences, and the table below tells more.

Pork Gelatin	Beef Gelatin
It has a light taste.	Its taste is thicker than pork’s gelatin.
Comes from a pig’s skin.	It comes from cow’s bones.
It has a lower protein content.	It has a higher protein content.
It doesn’t take long to cook.	It takes a long time to cook.
They don’t easily dissolve in cold water.	They readily dissolve in cold water.

Are Pop Tarts Halal?

Pop tarts sold in the United States and Canada aren’t halal certified. Besides, pop tarts containing gelatin can’t be halal because their gelatin is sourced from beef.

In other words, pop tarts with gelatin are considered haram. Moreover, Islam prohibits eating beef or pork for Muslims.

According to Islam dietary laws, herbivores, like cows among other animals, are haram if they weren’t slaughtered painlessly while reciting some Quranic verses.

It’s also halal (unlawful) if the animal was slaughtered and processed due to illnesses, injury or poisoning.

Contrarily, the unfrosted counterparts are halal if they don’t have pork or beef products.