Are Original Pringles Vegan and Healthy?

Pringles – possibly the most popular potato chips in this category that garnered immediate attention owing to its unique chips case. Where other potato chips in the market were being sold in fluffy paper bags, this one came in a tube-like, re-sealable box.

It became an instant hit among the audience, both in terms of the different taste it offered as well as the different packaging. Now the oh-so-tasty and famous chips are being examined for their vegan status by, of course, the vegan community. Here we explore whether the original Pringles which was first launched is actually vegan.

What are Pringles?

Pringles was acquired by Kellogg’s – the cereal giant – and assumed the rank of being the “4^th most popular snack product in the world!” that comes in the unique shape of a saddle. This is purposely done so that the chips can be stacked one over the other in its tube case. Also, being packed so, it’s at minimal risk of breaking or damage during transit.

What Are Pringles Made Of?

Interestingly, despite Pringles claiming to be a potato-based snack, there’s just about 42% of real potato in the standard varieties of the chips. The snack is highly processed by blending together dried potato flakes, water and corn starch. All of these lend the snack its yummy flavor. The new potato paste is then molded into the shape of a chip (saddle-shaped) and deep fried in edible vegetable oil for final consumption.

Despite being sold in varied flavors today, the original Pringles is still the most popular. So, ‘Can vegans eat potato chips?’, lets learn it through the ingredients list.

Many potato chips contain E631 Flavor enhancer which is under scrutiny whether E631 is vegan or not. So, While purchasing potato chips, do look for E631 enhancer too in the ingredients. Many of the Lays potato chips products have this flavor enhancer. We have compared these two chips brands in our Lays vs Pringles article.

Vegan Pringles Flavors

The Original Pringles flavor is vegan as its ingredients affirm so. The flavor contains dehydrated potatoes, vegetable oils (sunflower and corn), rice flour, wheat starch, corn flour, emulsifier (E471) derived from plant sources, maltodextrin, salt, yeast extract, and color (Annatto) derived from the seeds of the achiote tree.

Because the brand is available in numerous flavors in different countries, it may be hard to determine which flavors are vegan and which ones aren’t. To make things simpler for you, we’ve detailed the vegan flavors of Pringles so that vegans know which ones are still safe to munch on in snack time along with the other vegan snacks.

As mentioned earlier, only some of Pringles flavors are vegan-friendly. Here is the list of vegan as well as non vegan varieties of Pringles.

It’s interesting to note here that the Smokey Bacon flavor of the chips is actually vegan! This is because the company makes use of yeast and a wide variety of salts to get bacon-like flavor. On the contrary, Salt & Vinegar Pringles, another very popular flavor, is not vegan-friendly. The reason: it includes one or more ingredients that are dairy-based, such as lactose.

Are BBQ Pringles Vegan? Quite to the surprise of the barbecue-flavored fans of Pringles, it’s been noted that the flavor includes whey protein as a key ingredient. Whey is generally derived from milk and therefore doesn’t make BBQ Pringles qualify for the vegan category.

Are Sour Cream and Onion Pringles Vegan? No, because they contain dairy. They’re safe for vegetarians though because neither do they have any meat product nor involve killing of animals in the process. But for vegans, dairy is non-vegan, so it doesn’t qualify to be a vegan product.

Conclusion

Thankfully, there are plenty of vegan Pringles flavors to chomp on so go ahead vegans and enjoy your favorite snack. You can check out other snacks that are your favorite whether they are vegan or not. We have evaluated Doritos vegan status to help you choose your vegan snacks.