Are Lays Chips Vegan-Friendly?

Are you interested in finding out if Lays chips are vegan?

Lays chips are a brand of potato chips characterized by their thin shape and crisp flavor. This brand is under the Frito-Lay company.

Lays has various flavors with some of the popular flavors being:

If you are wondering if Lays are vegan-friendly, continue reading.

Are Lays Chips Vegan?

The answer is: Yes

The Classic Potato Chips are vegan-friendly. Some of the Lays flavors, however, are not vegan-friendly. This is because these products contain sugar and natural flavors that may contain traces of animal products.

What is Lay Chips Made Of?

Why Are Lays Potato Chips Vegan Friendly?

Lay’s Classic Potato Chips are made of all vegan ingredients. This makes them 100% vegan. However, some flavors are not completely vegan such as the BBQ flavor which I listed the ingredients of above. The non-vegan flavors contain two ingredients that are concerning for vegans: sugar, molasses and natural flavors.

Sugar

Cane sugar seems harmless and completely vegan at first glance because it comes from a plant. However, sugar may not be vegan because of the filtration process it undergoes.

Bone char is sometimes used in the sugar filtration process. Bone char is animal bones, mostly cow bones, burned at a very high temperature until they are a powder-like substance. This bone char is then used to refine the sugar.

Molasses

Molasses are made by melting sugar from sugar canes or beet sugar and then separating soluble material from the non-soluble material. The sugar then undergoes a filtration process similar to the one mentioned above. The sugar is boiled which causes it to crystallize and become concentrated. 

Natural Flavors

Natural flavors may be derived from animal and plant sources. It is unclear whether the natural flavors and sugar contained in Lay’s are vegan or not.

Final Thoughts

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration defines natural flavor as follows: “The essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.” 

While it is unclear whether the natural flavor, molasses and sugar used in Lay’s chips are vegan or not, we can say with certainty that the Classic Potato Chips are completely vegan. We advise that you read the ingredients carefully before indulging in the chips.

For more information on Lay’s chips, please visit www.lays.com.