Is apple juice vegan? 10 brands read, and the gelatin question

Almost always. Every 100% apple juice we read lists nothing beyond apple juice, water, vitamin C and a fruit acid. The open question is gelatin, which is used to clarify apple juice and can stay off the label. Two store brands go further and list their apple juice as vegan: Whole Foods’ 365 and Kroger’s Simple Truth.

The brands with the famous names are the quiet ones. Mott’s, Apple & Eve, Martinelli’s, Tree Top, Juicy Juice and Simply all describe what goes into their apple juice, and none of the pages we read for them calls the apple juice vegan or says how it was cleared. The two that do say vegan sell under a supermarket’s name. Whole Foods lists its 365 Organic Apple Juice under the dietary type Vegan, and its customer service pages define vegan foods as those without animal products, including meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, eggs and honey. Kroger tags its Simple Truth Organic Apple Juice vegan, vegetarian and kosher, and lists it as free from eggs, fish and milk. Neither page says how its juice was clarified, so the tag is the retailer’s word rather than a process you can check. It is still more than any of the national brands has put in writing. Our guide to checking ingredients covers the other names worth knowing.

What the label can and can’t rule out

A clarifier is a processing aid. Under 21 CFR 101.100, a substance added during processing and removed before the food is packaged does not have to be declared. That is the rule that lets gelatin stay off an apple juice label. A 2007 study in Latin American Applied Research calls clarifying apple juice with gelatin and bentonite “a common industrial practice”, and names isinglass, casein and albumen among the other protein fining agents.

The allergen law is the exception that does the work. The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act says a flavoring, coloring or incidental additive that is or contains a major food allergen still has to be declared, notwithstanding the processing-aid exemption. Milk, eggs and fish are all on the FDA’s list of major food allergens. So a juice fined with casein (milk), albumen (egg white) or isinglass (fish) would have to say so on the label, in the ingredient list or a Contains line. A juice fined with gelatin from pork or beef would not, because neither pork nor beef is a major allergen. Our article on why gelatin isn’t vegan covers where it comes from.

In practice, an apple juice whose label names no milk, egg or fish has ruled out three of the four animal finings named in the study. Gelatin is the one left open, and only the maker can close it.

Ten apple juices and drinks, read from the makers’ pages

We read the makers’ and retailers’ own product pages and FAQs in October 2026. “No vegan claim” means the pages we read don’t use the word.

Juice	What the maker lists	Vegan claim?	Clarified?
365 by Whole Foods Market Organic Apple Juice	Organic apple juice from concentrate, vitamin C	Yes, dietary type Vegan	Not stated
Simple Truth Organic Apple Juice	Organic apple juice from concentrate, filtered water	Yes, tagged Vegan	Not stated
Lakewood Organic Pure Apple Juice	Organic apple juice	No	No, per Lakewood
Martinelli’s Gold Medal Apple Juice	Apple juice, vitamin C	No	Not stated; unfiltered version sold
Mott’s 100% Apple Juice	Water, apple juice concentrate, vitamin C	No	Not stated
Apple & Eve 100% Apple Juice	Apple juice from concentrate, vitamin C, malic acid	No	Not stated
Juicy Juice 100% Juice Apple	Apple juice from concentrate, vitamin C, citric acid	No	Not stated; FAQ: none of the top 8 allergens
Tree Top 100% Apple Juice	Apple juice from concentrate, vitamin C	No	Not stated; FAQ: none of the top 8 allergens
Simply Apple	100% pure pressed apple juice, not from concentrate	No	Not stated
Honest Kids Appley Ever After	Filtered water, organic apple juice from concentrate, natural flavor, vitamin C, organic natural flavor, citric acid (42% juice)	No	Not stated

365 by Whole Foods Market Organic Apple Juice

Our pick on the supermarket shelf. Whole Foods puts its name to the word vegan, and unlike the Simple Truth bottle this one has added vitamin C. The ingredients are organic apple juice from concentrate, made from filtered water and organic apple juice concentrate, plus vitamin C, and Whole Foods files it under Vegan. Its customer service pages also say allergens in its own-brand products are called out on the label by their common names, which is what the allergen rule above relies on. The tag does not tell you how the juice was cleared. If vegan has to mean never fined with anything, this is the wrong bottle, and Lakewood below is the right one.

Simple Truth Organic Apple Juice

Kroger’s organic juice lists only organic apple juice from concentrate and filtered water, not even added vitamin C. The vegan tag sits next to a kosher one on its product page. It was $3.59, or $0.06 a fluid ounce, on Kroger’s site in October 2026. Kroger’s page doesn’t say what its vegan tag requires or how the juice was clarified, so it carries the same caveat as the 365 bottle. Don’t buy it for the vitamin C. There isn’t any added.

Lakewood Organic Pure Apple Juice

The one to buy if the gelatin question bothers you. Lakewood says the bottle holds one ingredient, organic apple juice, pressed from 10 to 12 organic apples, and that the sediment at the bottom is “a sign that nothing has been stripped out or clarified away”. A juice that was never clarified was never fined with anything. Lakewood’s page lists organic and kosher (KOF-K) certification, says the juice is gluten-free and non-GMO, and never uses the word vegan.

The catches are price and format. Lakewood’s own store lists a 2-pack of 32 oz glass bottles at $32.50 and a 6-pack at $65.00, which works out to about $0.34 a fluid ounce in the 6-pack against Simple Truth’s $0.06 (our arithmetic). And you have to shake it. If you want the pale, see-through juice of a school lunch, this isn’t it.

Martinelli’s Gold Medal Apple Juice

Pasteurized 100% apple juice from US-grown fresh apples, plus vitamin C. Martinelli’s also sells an Unfiltered Apple Juice with the same two-line ingredient list, which is the bottle to reach for if you want to lean Lakewood’s way, though neither page says how the juice is cleared. Its FAQ answers a question you may not have asked: its apple juice and its cider are the same, and only the label differs. It says the products are gluten-free and says nothing about gelatin or vegan status.

Mott’s 100% Apple Juice

Water, apple juice concentrate and vitamin C, per Keurig Dr Pepper’s product facts site, which publishes Mott’s labels. The page highlights gluten free and 100% juice and is silent on clarifying.

Apple & Eve 100% Apple Juice

Apple juice made from filtered water and concentrate, with vitamin C and malic acid for tartness. The product page adds two claims, no sugar added and non-GMO, and has no vegan, kosher or allergen statement.

Juicy Juice 100% Juice Apple

Apple juice from concentrate, vitamin C and citric acid. Juicy Juice’s FAQ says its products contain none of the top eight allergens, so casein, albumen and isinglass are out. The same FAQ asks outright whether the Organics line is vegan, and answers that none of its ingredients come from meat or dairy. That answer leaves out honey (eggs are covered by the allergen answer), and since a processing aid is not a declared ingredient, it stops short of gelatin too. It is the nearest any national brand here comes to the word, and it answers a different question. The FAQ also says the core juices are not kosher, which doesn’t change the vegan answer and will surprise a few shoppers.

Tree Top 100% Apple Juice

Apple juice from concentrate and vitamin C, on Tree Top’s foodservice spec sheet, which also lists it as kosher and gluten free. Tree Top’s consumer FAQ says its products are not made with any of the top 8 allergens, eggs, dairy and seafood included. It ends up where Juicy Juice does, with three of the four finings ruled out by the allergen rule and gelatin unanswered.

Simply Apple

Coca-Cola’s page describes it as 100% apple juice that is never from concentrate and never sweetened. The page gives no separate ingredient panel and says nothing about clarifying or vegan status. Nothing animal is listed, and that is all the page tells you.

Honest Kids Appley Ever After

Skip this one if you came for apple juice. Coca-Cola lists it as an organic apple juice drink with 42% juice, made from filtered water, organic apple juice concentrate, natural flavor, vitamin C, organic natural flavor and citric acid. Nothing animal is listed, but the page doesn’t say where either natural flavor comes from, and juice is 42% of what you are paying for. Buy any of the 100% juices above instead.

If you want a straight answer

Read the ingredient list and any Contains line first. If milk, egg and fish appear in neither, the law has already ruled out three animal finings. If you want the brand’s word as well, the 365 and Simple Truth bottles carry it. For gelatin specifically, ask the maker by name, or buy a juice that wasn’t clarified at all, which on this list means Lakewood.

Some makers have answered before. In 2013 Mott’s and Apple & Eve told the Vegetarian Resource Group that no gelatin is used in clarification, and Juicy Juice said its product contains no gelatin and is clarified with enzymes from bacteria. None of those answers appears on the pages we read for them today, so treat a 13-year-old reply as a reason to ask again rather than as an answer.

The same agents turn up in wine. Federal rules for wineries authorize gelatin to clarify juice or wine, and casein, egg white and isinglass for wine, and our article on whether alcohol is vegan goes through which bottles pass.