Are Skittles vegan? 10 bags checked, the gummies fail

The chewy and freeze-dried Skittles we read are vegan by their ingredient lists: Original, Wild Berry, Tropical, Sour, Littles and Pop’d Original list nothing from an animal. The four gummy bags we read are not. Original, Wild Berry, Fuego and Sour Gummies all list gelatin in their first five ingredients. No Skittles page we read calls a bag vegan.

COLORS ADDED is the phrase to watch on a Skittles bag, and federal rules give it a narrow meaning. Skittles has removed the FD&C colors, Red 40 and Yellow 5 among them, from select bite-size candies, and on those labels the colors will no longer be named. The list will just say COLORS ADDED. A label may sum up its colors as “Color Added”, or an equally clear term, only for colors that are exempt from certification and that no other rule requires by name. Carmine, the red made from insects, is one the rules do require by name. A food that contains cochineal extract or carmine has to list it, as one of those two words, in the ingredient list. The one bag the Skittles colors page names, the 27.5 oz Original Bite Size pouch it sells only on Amazon, lists its colors as beet juice concentrate, beta-carotene, calcium carbonate, grape juice concentrate, spirulina extract and turmeric oleoresin. Spirulina extract is made from the dried biomass of Arthrospira platensis, and calcium carbonate is ground limestone or made by precipitation. That page lists the colors only, not the rest of the pouch’s ingredients. Still, if a Skittles bag says colors added and neither carmine nor cochineal extract appears on it, the red isn’t from a bug. Our guide to carmine has the other names it goes by on labels that do use it.

Gelatin is the whole difference

We read the ingredient lists for 10 Skittles bags on the maker’s own pages in November 2026, a sample of the range rather than all of it, and the split between pass and fail runs along one line: the gummies against everything else. Original starts with sugar, corn syrup and hydrogenated palm kernel oil, and everything after that sits under 2%: citric acid, tapioca dextrin, modified corn starch, natural and artificial flavors, colors, sodium citrate and carnauba wax. Five of the six non-gummy bags follow that pattern, and Sour moves citric acid up to third. Carnauba wax comes from the leaves and buds of the Brazilian wax palm.

The gummies start somewhere else. Original and Wild Berry Gummies open with corn syrup, sugar, modified corn starch, water and then gelatin. Gelatin is made from animal collagen, and our piece on why gelatin isn’t vegan goes through where it comes from and what replaces it. It was the only animal ingredient on any of the 10 lists, on all four gummy bags and none of the six others. Skittles’ own Gummies page shows no other gummy line, only these four in other bag sizes and a 2.93 oz bag whose list is Original Gummies’ again, gelatin included. Nothing on the lists we read was dairy, egg, honey, shellac or carmine.

What a Skittles label can’t tell you

Three lines on the chewy bags stay open however closely you read them.

The first is “natural and artificial flavors”. Under federal rules a natural flavor can come from plants, and it can also come from meat, seafood, poultry, eggs or dairy. The allergen law narrows that. A flavoring that contains a major food allergen has to be labeled like any other ingredient, either in a Contains line or by naming the allergen within the ingredient list, and milk, egg, fish and crustacean shellfish are on that list. None of the 10 Skittles pages shows a Contains line or an allergen named in the list, so a flavor made from milk, egg or fish would have to be named, and none of these pages names one. A meat or poultry flavor would not have to, and no page says what the flavors are made from. We count the chewy bags as vegan by their lists, the same call we make on other candy with the same line, and you may draw yours tighter.

The second is the sugar. Every list says “Sugar” and nothing more. Whether it was filtered through bone char is not something an ingredient list can show, and nothing we read from Skittles answers it. Our guide to whether sugar is vegan goes through which refiners say what.

The third is the palm. Hydrogenated palm kernel oil is the third ingredient on five of the non-gummy bags and the fourth on Sour. Some vegans avoid palm oil for what plantations do to wildlife habitat; others hold that a plant oil is vegan and the habitat question belongs to a different shelf. Our line is that the vegan verdict goes by what is in the bag, and palm is a line you draw yourself. If you draw it, the chewy Skittles are out. Of the 10 we read, the bags with no palm oil on the list are the gummies, which brings you straight back to the gelatin.

One more thing applies to all 10. Each page says its list reflects the current recipe, then adds: “Previous packaging with former formulations may still be found on shelves.” Read the back of the bag in your hand, not this page and not the website.

Ten Skittles bags, checked

Bag	Vegan?	Why	Skip it if
Skittles Original, 2.17 oz	Yes, by its ingredient list	Nothing animal listed	You avoid synthetic dyes
Skittles Wild Berry, 2.17 oz	Yes, by its ingredient list	Nothing animal listed	Palm oil is a line for you
Skittles Tropical, 2.17 oz	Yes, by its ingredient list	Nothing animal listed	You want a different list, not just different flavors
Skittles Sour, 1.8 oz	Yes, by its ingredient list	Nothing animal listed	Palm oil is a line for you
Skittles Littles, 7.2 oz	Yes, by its ingredient list	Nothing animal listed	You hoped the small ones were made differently
Skittles Pop’d Original, 5.5 oz	Yes, by its ingredient list	Nothing animal listed	Palm oil is a line for you
Skittles Original Gummies, 5.8 oz	No	Gelatin	Always, if you buy vegan
Skittles Wild Berry Gummies, 5.8 oz	No	Gelatin	Always, if you buy vegan
Skittles Gummies Fuego, 4.2 oz	No	Gelatin	Always, if you buy vegan
Skittles Sour Gummies, 5.8 oz	No	Gelatin	Always, if you buy vegan

None of the pages gave a price, so there are none here.

Skittles Original

Our pick, because every other chewy bag here is a variation on this list. Sugar, corn syrup and hydrogenated palm kernel oil, then the under-2% group, with nine color entries counting the lakes separately and carnauba wax last. Nothing from an animal. If you are avoiding synthetic dyes for your own reasons, those nine entries are the reason to put it back.

Skittles Wild Berry

The same base as Original, with eight color entries instead of nine. Vegan by the list, and the same palm oil third in line.

Skittles Tropical

Tropical runs on the same three main ingredients and the same under-2% group, with a shorter color line of seven entries and no Blue 2. No animal ingredient on it. Only the flavors and the color line change.

Skittles Sour

Sour is the one chewy list that is built a little differently. Citric acid moves up to third, ahead of the hydrogenated palm kernel oil. Nothing animal on it. The palm is still there, fourth instead of third.

Skittles Littles

The small ones. The list on the 7.2 oz bag matches Original’s ingredient for ingredient, palm kernel oil, carnauba wax and all. Vegan by the list. If you were hoping the smaller candy came with a different recipe, it doesn’t.

Skittles Pop’d Original

Freeze-dried, and Skittles says that gives it a crunchy bite. The process changes nothing on the list, which is Original’s again, with the same palm kernel oil and the same nine color entries. Nothing from an animal.

Skittles Original Gummies

Don’t buy this one. Gelatin is the fifth ingredient, right after water. It has sunflower oil where the chewy bags have palm, which is cold comfort.

Skittles Wild Berry Gummies

The same gummy base as Original Gummies, gelatin fifth after water, and a color line cut to Red 40, Yellow 5 and Blue 1. Not vegan.

Skittles Gummies Fuego

A chili coating does not change the base. Sugar, corn syrup, water, modified cornstarch and gelatin open the list, and chili powder and salt arrive in the under-2% group. The heat is new. The gelatin isn’t, so put it back.

Skittles Sour Gummies

Gelatin moves up here, to fourth, ahead of the fumaric acid. Before you squint at the lactic acid and calcium lactate further down, the gelatin has already settled it. Leave this one on the peg.

For a chewy bag, take any of the first six and turn it over for the word gelatin before it goes in the cart. For a gummy without gelatin, start with our list of vegan Halloween candy, which reads the gummy shelf beyond Skittles.