One of the most exciting things for new vegans and long-time vegans alike, is discovering food products that you didn’t know were vegan but are! These are called accidentally vegan foods. Many of these are favourites from before you turn vegan, and then you realise that they were accidentally vegan all along. The term ‘accidental’ is used because these products weren’t created to be a specific vegan alternative – they coincidentally are.
Here’s a list of some of the best accidentally vegan foods that you can easily get in any UK supermarket!
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1. Oreos
I was never an Oreo fan until after I went vegan, and since then I have discovered the Birthday Party Oreos which are SO good, and the Golden Oreos which I think taste exactly like custard creams! Oreos are usually a decent price in the supermarket as they’re often on offer (especially in the bigger supermarkets) and thankfully they’re vegan, too (most flavours are, but some aren’t, so be careful). As more and more Oreo flavours are released, make sure you glance at the ingredients list to check that they’re vegan-friendly.
Buy Oreo Original at Ocado | British Corner Shop
Buy Oreo Double Creme at Ocado | British Corner Shop
Buy Oreo Birthday Party at Ocado | British Corner Shop
Buy Golden Oreo at Ocado | British Corner Shop
ALSO READ: How to Read Ingredients Labels for New Vegans
2. Bourbon Biscuits
One of my favourite accidentally vegan food products! In my experience people seem to be surprised that Bourbon biscuits are vegan, but they are. They were one of my favourite biscuits from before I went vegan so I was thrilled to discover that they can still be eaten on a plant-based diet. Their counterparts, custard creams, are not vegan, but like I said in the Oreos section, Golden Oreos are a great alternative!
Buy Bourbon Biscuits at Ocado | British Corner Shop
3. Party Rings
Continuing on with the biscuits, Party Rings are a biscuit that I remember eating when I was young at birthday parties and family events. I had forgotten about them until I went vegan, and upon discovering they’re vegan friendly I’ve started eating them again. And they are GOOD. An underrated biscuit, definitely.
Buy Party Rings at British Corner Shop
4. Jammie Dodgers
Are Jammie Dodgers vegan? Yes, they are! Jammie Dodgers turned vegan in July 2020, when milk was removed from its ingredients list. They’re also suitable for people with milk allergies, as they’re made on a separate line in the factory. Mini Jammie Dodgers are also vegan, but are not suitable for milk allergy sufferers. Be warned that most imitators of Jammie Dodgers (e.g. Tesco or Asda’s own brands) are not vegan-friendly, so make sure you read the ingredients list.
Buy Jammie Dodgers at British Corner Shop
Buy Jammie Dodgers Minis at British Corner Shop
5. Co-Op Jam & Custard Doughnuts
I only discovered that Co-Op Jam and Custard doughnuts are vegan last year, which was a great discovery. I’m usually not a huge doughnut fan, but these jam ones are SO good, and also a very decent price.
Buy Co-Op Jam Doughnuts at Co-Op
6. Bournville Chocolate
In my opinion Bournville chocolate is one of the best dark chocolate brands out there. It’s sweet and tastes like dark chooclate but isn’t bitter, like some are. It’s also a decent price for a large bar, and works really well for baking. It was always one of my go=to chocolate bars when I was a teenager, and I love the fact it’s stayed the same for as long as I’ve known it. Classic, delicious chocolate.
Buy Bournville Classic at British Corner Shop | Ocado
Buy Bournville Orange at British Corner Shop | Ocado
Buy Bournville Giant Buttons at British Corner Shop | Ocado
Buy Bournville Fingers at Ocado
ALSO READ: A Guide to the Best Vegan-Friendly Chocolate!
7. Just-Rol Cinnamon Swirls & Pains Au Chocolat
This was a revelation for me last year, as I discovered that a few of the Jus-Rol products are vegan-friendly! This means I’ve eaten a lot of pastries for breakfast this year, as you can see in the photo above of cinnamon swirls! If you’ve never used them before, they’re basically low-effort pastries that you just need to get out of the package, slice into separate portions, and then put in the oven. And then afterwards, you put a little bit of delicious icing on them.
They also do Pains au Chocolat which are equally as delicious and easy to make. Each pack contains 6 pain au chocolats, so plenty in one packet. Jus-Rol Croissants are also vegan, but I haven’t tried them as I always get the Cinnamon Swirls because I love them so much!
Buy Jus-Rol Cinnamon Swirls at Morrisons
Buy Jus-Rol Pains au Chocolat at Morrisons
Buy Jus-Rol Croissants at Morrisons
8. Cereals
There are so many I thought I’d combine them into one heading here, but some of them include:
- Jordan’s Country Crisp Strawberry Granola (my favourite) as well as the Chunky Nuts and Raisin versions
- Cheerios Low Sugar
- Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Granola – the Fruit & Nut version, and Pistachio & Dark Chocolate
- Oatibix and Oatibix Flakes
- Shreddies, Shreddies Coco, and Shreddies Frosted
- Shredded Wheat, Shredded Wheat Bitesize and Shredded Wheat Red Berries & Vanilla
- Weetabix, Weetabix Chocolate and Weetabix Banana
…and more! Make sure you always check ingredients list, as they can change without warning.
9. Crisps
Again, there are so many I’m going to combine them into one heading, but here are some of the highlights of crisps you might not have realised are vegan:
- Doritos actually vary from country to country, but in the UK, the following flavours are vegan-friendly: Lightly Salted, Chilli Heatwave, and Heatburst BBQ & Chilli. Note that Cool Original Doritos (with the blue packaging) are NOT vegan because they contain milk.
- Pringles – Original, Texas BBQ, Sweet Chilli, Paprika and Smokey Bacon Flavour are vegan (Pringles Rice and Xtra are not vegan).
- Kettle Chips – Lightly Salted, Sea Salt & Cracked Black Peppercorns, Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar, Seaside Salt & Malt Vinegar, Rosemary & Sea Salt, Thai Sweet Chilli, Veg Chips Lightly Salted, and Veg Chips Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar (and don’t forget their Vegan Sheese & Red Onion!) are all vegan!
- Twiglets are vegan-friendly! Iconic crisps that you either love or hate. Unfortunately I’m not a big fan, but I always seem to try a few around Christmas time to see if I’ve changed my mind (they’re too strong for me)!
- Hula Hoops – Original and Salt & Vinegar flavours are vegan friendly, and that goes for the original sized hula hoops and Big Hoops, too.
- Walkers have a wide range of vegan flavours including: Salt & Vinegar, Ready Salted, Prawn Cocktail, Worcester Sauce, Roast Chicken, Marmite flavour, Walkers Oven Baked Sea Salt, Walkers Oven Baked Sticky Barbecue, Crinkles Simply Sea Salted, Chipsticks Salt n Vinegar, Sensations Lime & Coriander Chutney Poppadoms, Sensations Balsamic Vinegar & Caramelised Onion, Sunbites Sweet Chilli, Sunbites Original, Sausage and Brown Sauce
- Sainsbury’s have a few vegan crisps that are worth mentioning, including their Meaty Variety assorted crisps, Bacon Crispies, Taste the Difference Sea Salt and Peppercorn crisps, Taste the Difference Lightly Sea Salted crisps and Taste the Difference Vegetable Crisps.
There’s even more out there, but this is a wide selection to get you started!
ALSO READ: A Beginner’s Guide to Amazing Vegan Alternatives!
10. Jelly
It’s important to say that not all jelly is vegan – a lot isn’t – but some are vegan-friendly!
- Hartleys Jelly has lots of vegan flavours, including Raspberry 10 Cal Jelly, Strawberry 10 Cal Jelly, Blueberry & Blackcurrant 10 Cal Jelly, Peach 10 Cal Jelly, Ready to Eat Raspberry, Ready To Eat Strawberry, Ready to Eat Lemon & Lime, Ready to Eat Blackcurrant, No Added Sugar Strawberry, No Added Sugar Orange, No Added Sugar Blackcurrant, Reduced Sugar Mango & Passion Fruit, Reduced Sugar Cranberry & Raspberry, Hartleys Juicy Jelly Pouch Strawberry, Harleys Juicy Jelly Pouch Raspberry, and Pineapple in Jelly.
- Tesco Jelly includes Tesco Mango Jelly & Peach Pieces, Tesco Tropical Flavour Jelly Peach & Pear Pieces, and Tesco Raspberry Jelly Dessert.
- M&S Jelly – I have this ocassionally for dessert! The following flavours are accidentally vegan: Raspberry, Passion Fruit & Orange.
Are there any accidentally vegan foods here that I missed out, or anything that surprised you? Let me know with a reply below – let’s have a conversation! 🙂
The Comments
Jenny in Neverland
This is such a great post! This is really helpful for people who might want to make a few Vegan swaps but not sure how. I’m not Vegan myself but I do always like eating Vegan food. I can’t believe party rings are Vegan – they are the KING of biscuits!
Dani
Jenny in NeverlandHi Jenny, I’m glad you enjoyed the post! And yes haha I LOVE party rings 🙂 Such a great biscuit, aren’t they?
The Exclusive Beauty Diary
I didn’t know that Oreos are vegan. I love eat them so much. Thank you for sharing all of these candies, I need to check many of them.
New Post – https://www.exclusivebeautydiary.com/2021/02/rouge-dior-couture-colour-999.html
Dani
The Exclusive Beauty DiaryYes, it’s great isn’t it? Oreos are a great snack. Thanks for commenting 🙂
Laura
This is so good to know, I had no idea that so many amazing crisps and biscuits are vegan😍thank you!
Dani
LauraHi Laura, I’m glad you found the post useful. Thanks!
Emily
This is pretty much just a list of all my favourite snacks ahah!
https://www.emilyclareskinner.com
Dani
EmilyHi Emily – same!! Haha. Thanks for commenting!
picchard
It’s genuinely kind of surprising what stuff has sneakily been vegan this whole time. Feel like my life would be substantially worse if it wasn’t for those birthday Oreos 😂
Dani
picchardHi Picchard, I agree – so many surprising discoveries when I did the research when I first turned vegan! And YES, I LOVE birthday Oreos! Thanks for commenting!
The Exclusive Beauty Diary
Oreo are my favorite cookies and I didn’t know these are vegan.
New Post – https://www.exclusivebeautydiary.com/2021/02/perfumed-body-lotions.html
Dani
The Exclusive Beauty DiarySame, I love Oreos too!
melanie
This is great!! Im vegan myself, and sometimes people ask me if its really hard to only eat vegetables and fruits.. *sigh*
and then I love to tell them that theres loots and lots of delicious vegan snacks. This is perfect to refer them back to!! thank you. Great blog. Im a new subsciber 🙂
If youre down, it would be awesome to collaborate and write guest blog posts for each others blogs? xx
Dani
melanieHi Melanie, yes I definitely have been asked that too but thankfully a lot less now than in the past. Part of the reason I made my vegan food Instagram was to show people that I didn’t just eat salads!! Thanks – I’ll send you a message 🙂
Susanne
YAY! So many accidentally vegan foods – I had no idea! Being a vegetarian myself but with the ambition to eat more and more vegan, this one was a wonderful read for me. And stocking up on those Oreos asap, lol! Thanks so much for your insights, and for making me smile today 🙂 Love, Susanne
Dani
SusanneHi Susanne, thank you for your kind comment. Haha yes, stock up on Oreos and eat them guilt-free 🙂 Enjoy your journey to being more vegan, there’s new things to learn and discover but an exciting step to take!
Abigail@AbigailJane
It really is amazing how many snacks are accidentally vegan friendly! I’m still finding more options eve after so many years on a vegan diet!
Dani
Abigail@AbigailJaneHi Abigail, I too also discover new things all the time even though I’ve been vegan for years! That’s definitely a fun part of it 🙂 thanks for commenting!
Amber Page
Wow, so it turns out a lot of my snacks are actually vegan! I knew oreos were vegan but I didn’t realise party rings are! Guess i should have looked properly!
Amber | The Unpredicted Page | https://theunpredictedpage.com
Dani
Amber PageHi Amber, it’s surprising isn’t it? Always great to find out when something is vegan-friendly and you didn’t know before! Thanks for reading.
Jas
I can’t believe I missed the section on jelly the first time I read this!! So glad to find a handy list of UK plant based jelly options 💜
This is such a comprehensive list and is so handy, thank you!
Dani
JasHi Jas – I’m glad you discovered the jelly section this time around!! 🙂 You’re very welcome, I’m glad you found it useful.
Lauren
I love Bourbon biscuits and party rings and I didn’t know either was vegan so that is really cool. Thank you for sharing the other ones too!
Lauren
Dani
LaurenSame, I love them too! Definitely a great discovery 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the post!
Caroline
It’s so cool how many foods are unexpectedly vegan! My faves are bourbon biscuits and Bournville chocolate 🙂 xx
Dani
CarolineHi Caroline – I agree, it’s a great discovery. And excellent choice of favourites, I love anything chocolate!
Caroline
I’m not a vegan, for health reasons, but I’m vegetarian and love the idea of accidentally vegan foods! Oreos and bourbons are my all-time favourite biscuits. I never knew about Co-op doughnuts being vegan so that’s a pretty cool discovery. Great post – just discovered your blog and I love it <3