So even though the grocery stores have been hawking Halloween candy since the 4th of July, I figure some of you are like me and you buy your stash at the last minute – like, two weeks before the Big Day.    Really, I buy candy ON Halloween Day so that I’m less likely to eat it all before it’s time to give it out. If I had it sitting around the house for a month I would totally eat it – I simply CAN NOT have candy just sitting around.  And when I buy Halloween candy, I get the kinds I DON’T like. Again, so I won’t eat it. Actually, I don’t really LOVE Halloween – I mean, you’re opening your door to people wearing masks. The little kids are OK -  it’s the big ones that give me the shivers. Anyway, I digress…

Vegan Halloween Candy

VegNews just posted a list of vegan Halloween candy. Here is their list, plus some more that I found while perusing the web. Don’t cave in! Stick to your vegan values and offer up these vegan Halloween candy treats**:

• Airheads taffy
• Angel Mints (Florida Candy Factory)
• Atkins peanut butter bars
• Brach’s Cinnamon Hard Candy
• Brach’s Fruit Slices
• Charms lollipops
• Charms Blo-Pops
• Chick-o-Sticks
• Cracker Jack
• Cry Babies
• Dem Bones
• Dots
• Dum-Dums
• Equal Exchange Dark Chocolate Bites
• Fireballs
• Goelitz Confections brand vegan candy corn
• Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews
• Go Max Go candy bars (vegan versions of 3 Muskateers, Snickers, Almond Joy, Milky Way)
• Hubba Bubba bubblegum
• Jolly Ranchers (lollipops and hard candy)
• Jujubees
• Jujyfruits
• Lemonheads
• Mambas
• Mary Janes (regular and peanut butter kisses)
• Now and Later
• Paul Newman’s Orange Dark Chocolate
• Peanut Butter Bars
• Popcorn Balls (The Humphrey Company)
• Pure Fun Lemon, Lime, and Orange Slices
• Ring Pop lollipops
• Root Beer Barrels
• Skittles
• Smarties (U.S. Brand)
• Sour Patch Kids
• Starburst Jelly Beans
• Super Bubble
• Swedish Fish
• Sweet Tarts
• Surf Sweets Sour Berry Bears
• Tropical Source candy bars and mini chocolate bags
• Twizzlers
• Vegan Nougat (Australian Nougat Company)
• VerMints
• Wonka Bottlecaps
• Zotz

** These all contain sugar that may or may not have been processed through bone chard. If you want to avoid non-vegan sugar, you might need to give out boxes of raisins or apples (did you know that no one has ever actually found a razor blade in a Halloween apple?). And, some of the above may also have trace amounts of animal body parts and secretions, so you may want to carefully check the labels if that is a concern to you.

If you are wondering about other candy that is not on this list, here are some non-vegan ingredients to watch out for:

• Gelatin, carmine, rennet, pepsin, lard
• Milk chocolate
• Casein, whey
• Butter
• Lactose
• Honey
• Beeswax
• Calcium mesoinositol hexaphosphate
• Lactose
• Sperm oil
• Spermaceti

Also -the following “E” numbers:

• 120 (cochineal/insects/carmine)
• 542 (derived from bone)
• 901 (beeswax)
• 904 (shellac/insects)
• 920 (L-cysteine hydrochloride; derived from hair and feathers)