10 Popular Foods That Should Already Be Vegan

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If you’ve ever stared at a label and thought “Really? That’s the ingredient keeping this from being vegan?”, you’re not alone. Many everyday products are just one tiny swap away from being totally plant-based. And the best part? Most of these swaps wouldn’t even be noticeable to the average eater.

With veganism growing and more people looking for dairy-free and egg-free options, it feels like the perfect time to highlight the products that could effortlessly go vegan without sacrificing taste, texture, or nostalgia.

Here are 10 popular foods that could easily be vegan:

1. Pop-Tarts

Childhood breakfast nostalgia, but with a catch. Most flavors contain gelatin in the frosting. Swap the gelatin for a plant-based thickener like agar agar or aquafaba (the liquid from cooked chickpeas), and boom, we could have vegan frosted Pop-Tarts that more could enjoy.

2. Reese’s Pieces Candies

Reese’s peanut butter cups has a plant based option, and Reese’s recently quietly removed dairy from the ingredients list for their pieces candies according to this article from Go Dairy Free, but the candy shell still contains confectioners glaze making them unsuitable for vegans. Why? Well if you didn’t know, confectioners glaze (or often called shellac) is insect derived from the secretions of the lac bug. Lots of other candy manufacturers have figured out how to make these type of hard shell candies vegan without shellac like Unreal and Justin’s so why not them? They would taste exactly the same minus this animal ingredient and I believe if more knew what confectioners glaze actually was, they would probably avoid them too.

3. Pie Crusts

Some major and store brands sneak in lard or butter, even though a simple swap to vegan butter or vegetable shortening would do the trick. In fact, many homemade vegan pie crusts are already flaky, golden, and virtually indistinguishable proving those animal ingredients aren’t needed.

4. Graham Crackers

Graham crackers often contain honey, even though cane sugar, maple or brown rice syrup, or agave could easily replace it. No one would taste the difference, and every s’more, cheesecake, or pie crust could now be 100% vegan.

5. Cookies

Some packaged cookies are already vegan friendly, but many popular classic nostalgic packaged cookies use milk or eggs unnecessarily. Plant-based milk powders or emulsifiers work just as well so brands could make the switch (looking at you Chips Ahoy and Fudge Stripes).

6. Cool Whip

The iconic whipped topping offers “non-dairy” varieties, but even those contain milk derivatives because they contain sodium caseinate. Due to a loophole, brands are allowed to label things “non-dairy” because U.S. FDA regulations define non-dairy as excluding lactose and main milk fats like butter or cream, not all milk proteins. Dairy-free is a much stricter regulated term and are completely free of dairy ingredients, including milk proteins. A simple switch to coconut or oat-based cream stabilizers could make Cool Whip truly dairy-free and vegan-friendly.

7. Non-Dairy Creamers

Just like Cool Whip above, so-called “non-dairy creamers” often still contain casein (that pesky milk protein). Just remove the casein, replace it with a plant protein or gum stabilizer, and the label could finally live up to its name. Again, look for dairy-free or ones clearly labeled vegan.

8. Breakfast Cereals

I found out about this fact later in my vegan journey as I always assumed all cereals were vegan friendly. Wrong. Many commercial well-known cereals contain vitamin D3, which is often sourced from lanolin (sheep’s wool). There are plant-based alternatives that could be used or brands could just leave it out. I’ve noticed a lot of the holiday special versions of some popular cereals omit the D3 for some reason so why not all of them all the time? Also, be careful of the cereals that contain those fun mini marshmallows. They contain gelatin usually. Some brands do disclose they use vegan D3 but those are few and far between.

9. Sprinkles

It’s 2025 so brands need to stop using confectioner’s glaze (made with bugs) in sprinkles! There are already vegan versions that look and taste exactly the same but those can be more costly and harder to find. Again, if people only knew they were getting a side of insects with their cupcakes, I think there would be more pressure on brands to find an alternative.

10. Dark Chocolate

It’s the stuff memes are made of, “why is there milk in this?!”. Dark chocolate (which inherently is vegan), shouldn’t contain dairy but brands often add milk or butter oil for taste and texture they claim. Another reason could be that they get major subsidies for using dairy in a product where it has no business being in but that’s a conspiracy theory. I think there may be truth to it though as these tiny additions of milk really don’t affect much as evidenced by other brands who leave their dark chocolate alone and they taste amazing.

Final Bite

We’re not asking for a total food revolution (though we wouldn’t complain), just some smart swaps that could make beloved products accessible to millions more people. Because if the flavor and texture stay the same, why not make them vegan?