Jelly Bellys: vegetarian, but not vegan

15 Responses

1. Katherine

   29|Mar|2002 1

   Mr. Jelly Belly is awesome. I sent him an email once about their sugar free jelly beans (for my mom, who has type II diabetes) and I got the most informative, friendly response I’ve ever gotten from a company.

2. David

   04|Apr|2002 2

   I think the cheesecake flavor has dairy. Other than that they are AOK.

3. elvira

   28|Mar|2003 3

   I love Jelly Belly Jelly beans, and am glad there is no gelatin in it. However, the ingredients list cream and nonfat milk. Are those two ingredients not considered animal-derived?

4. Tom Boutell

   09|Apr|2003 4

   I guessed the number of jellybeans and won
   the jar — you know how the game goes.

   They were purchased from a bulk candy bin somewhere.

   I see comments above that “many” jelly beans contain gelatin, but now that I’ve got them I thought I’d try to find some hard evidence before giving them a bad rap. Can anyone confirm that “most” standard-issue jelly beans are not vegetarian?

5. Ryan

   09|Apr|2003 5

   It’s been a while since I wrote this entry, but I was going by info similar to what I found here:

   “Jellybeans must contain a gelatinizing agent, such as starch, gelatin, pectin or gum arabic to provide the chewy texture.”

6. Happy Mom Happy Child

   31|Jul|2004 6

   We are so happy to have found this site and the news on Jelly Belly candy! She is so happy as a lacto-ove veggie kid I (mom) try to make sure she has as normal a child hood and find veggie friendly candy. We love these beans and have been eating them all week. Wow oh wow are we ever happy! I didn’t see anything on lable re: gelatin and decided to just double check.

7. jelly bellys :D

   18|Mar|2007 7

   hi, does any1 no if jelly bellys contain cochineal -? [crushed beetles] ? please confirm! thanks

8. Moh'd Tahow

   09|Jun|2007 8

   well I am Muslim An gelatin is not OK
   I got this big box of jully been made from Jelly Belly I read the constain no gelatin I search in the net. I fine this site. and now I am starting eating the bean :) thank you

9. kate

   30|Oct|2007 9

   If you take a look on the Jelly Belly web site in the FAQ section, there is a statement that says Jelly bellies DO NOT contain animal derived ingredients. This is absolute rubbish and I am quite dissapointed that this may confuse people. Milk is an animal derived ingredient (it is derived from a cows nipple duh!) and it is in basically all of the milk or “buttered” flavoured beans. The red colouring that you see on some of the beans is cochineal from burnt and powdered cochineal beetles and if you consider yourself to be a vegetarian than these are not ok for you- unless you are one of those fake vegetarians because you think its cool. If you are vegetarian for ethical reasons than get real and go vegan!

10. jane

    13|Nov|2007 10

    Hi, has anybody looked at the UK site of Jelly Belly recently? they are saying that there is company similar to jelly belly producing none vegetarian beans however stating they are. Does anybody know what company it is?thanks

11. Cheryl

    25|Nov|2007 11

    http://www.jellybeanfactory.com/ I think it is these. I got these from debenhams after seeing them in the coffee shop with a vegetarian sign. I didn’t eat them because i was not totally happy that they were. I looked online and found they contain animal colours. I emailed the company and all they did was email me back saying they are vegetarian… EVEN when i could see for myself by looking up the ingredients online.

12. Megan

    06|Feb|2008 12

    Well, I don’t think any of the beans contain gelatin. However the source of some of the flavours and sources of colours concern me. I called the number on the back of the packaging but was told that I had to email a specific department to find out more about ingredients. Common sense ought to prevail in this case: go with your gut. If you see a red jelly bean, it’s probably from cochineal (crushed female beetles) and the buttered flavour beans are from milk. Assume that unless you confirm otherwise. And abide by it. That’s the surest way to go about this.

13. Kat

    18|Mar|2008 13

    They contain beeswax. No gelatin.

14. Deanna

    23|Mar|2008 14

    First of all, Jelly Belly beans are Kosher. Kosher products do NOT contain cochineal (derived from a Scale insect NOT a beetle). As far as I can tell, the dairy content in the creamy/butter flavored beans and the beeswax are the only things that should concern vegans.

15. Becci

    26|Mar|2008 15

    …I thought I’d seen shellac on the ingredients list for Jelly Belly. I’ll have to check again.