The potato ones we checked are. Ore-Ida’s Golden and Extra Crispy Tater Tots and Grown in Idaho’s Super Crispy Tots list nothing from an animal. Veggie tots are another matter: all four Green Giant veggie tots list eggs and whey, and Dr. Praeger’s Littles, shaped veggie bites sold alongside them, list egg whites.
The bag to watch is the plain one. Green Giant’s Veggie Tots Cauliflower has no cheese in its name, and its ingredient panel lists eggs and whey in the small print, then declares egg and milk. Its broccoli, bacon and zucchini siblings put the cheese in the name. Scan the name for cheese and the cauliflower bag passes; the ingredient list and the Contains line don’t. It’s the same trap as the foods on our list of everyday foods that turn out not to be vegan, where the animal ingredient sits further down the list than the name.
What a plain potato tot is made of
Ore-Ida’s Golden Tater Tots are potatoes, a soybean and cottonseed oil blend, salt, yellow corn flour, dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (to keep the color), dehydrated onion, sodium acid sulfate and natural flavor. Grown in Idaho’s list is close: potatoes, oil, salt, corn flour, dehydrated potato, dextrose, a pyrophosphate, natural flavors, garlic powder and onion powder. Nothing there is from an animal by name.
Natural flavor is the one line you can’t read to the bottom. Under federal rules it can come from plants, and it can also come from meat, seafood, poultry, eggs or dairy, and neither page says which. Ore-Ida’s Extra Crispy Tater Tots drop it, listing garlic powder and celery seed in its place, which makes them the bag here with no open question in its ingredient list.
Veggie tots swap some of the potato for a vegetable and, in the bags we read, add egg to the mix. Green Giant’s four list eggs and whey, and three of them add cheddar or parmesan. Dr. Praeger’s Littles, which its pages describe as shaped bites rather than tots, use egg whites.
Ten bags, potato and vegetable
We read each maker’s product page in October 2026. Green Giant’s ingredient panels are images the site posted in 2023, so check the bag in your hand. None of the pages gave a price.
| Tots | Vegan? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Tater Tots | Yes, by its ingredient list | Nothing animal listed, no natural flavor |
| Ore-Ida Golden Tater Tots | Yes, by its ingredient list | Nothing animal listed; natural flavor unspecified |
| Grown in Idaho Super Crispy Tots | Yes, by its ingredient list | Nothing animal listed; natural flavors unspecified |
| Green Giant Veggie Tots Cauliflower | No | Eggs, whey |
| Green Giant Veggie Tots Broccoli & Cheese | No | Cheddar, eggs, whey |
| Green Giant Veggie Tots Cauliflower & Cheese with Bacon | No | Cheddar, bacon, eggs, whey |
| Green Giant Veggie Tots Zucchini & Parmesan Cheese | No | Parmesan, whey, eggs |
| Dr. Praeger’s Broccoli Littles | No | Egg whites |
| Dr. Praeger’s Sweet Potato Littles | No | Egg whites |
| Dr. Praeger’s Spinach Littles | No | Egg whites |
Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Tater Tots
Our pick. The list runs potatoes, the soybean and cottonseed oil blend, salt, yellow corn flour, dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate, dehydrated onion, sodium acid sulfate, garlic powder and celery seed. Kraft Heinz doesn’t call them vegan, and the page says allergen information isn’t available, so the verdict is our reading of the list.
Ore-Ida Golden Tater Tots
The same list as Extra Crispy until the end, where natural flavor stands in for the garlic powder and celery seed. Vegan by its ingredient list, with that one unknown. If you’d rather not guess, buy the Extra Crispy bag.
Grown in Idaho Super Crispy Tots
Lamb Weston’s bag adds dehydrated potato, garlic powder and onion powder, and lists natural flavors. The oil line reads canola, palm, soybean or sunflower, one or more of them, so if you avoid palm oil the list can’t promise you a bag without it. Vegan by its list, the same natural flavor question as Ore-Ida’s Golden.
Green Giant Veggie Tots Cauliflower
Not vegan. Cauliflower leads, then enriched flour, water, soybean oil, dried potatoes and starch, and in the under-2% group sit eggs and whey. The panel ends “Contains Egg, Milk, Soy, Wheat”. Nothing in the name warns you, which is the whole problem.
Green Giant Veggie Tots Broccoli & Cheese
Cheddar cheese is the fifth ingredient, and eggs and whey follow further down. At least the name tells you about the cheese.
Green Giant Veggie Tots Cauliflower & Cheese with Bacon
Cheddar, eggs and whey, as with the broccoli bag, plus bacon pieces in the under-2% group. The least ambiguous no here.
Green Giant Veggie Tots Zucchini & Parmesan Cheese
Parmesan made with part-skim milk, then whey and eggs near the end of the list. Same verdict, and the panel declares egg and milk.
Dr. Praeger’s Broccoli Littles
Broccoli, potatoes, onions, potato flakes and oil, then egg whites, with egg declared. The old version of this page named Dr. Praeger’s as a vegan tater tot brand without saying which product; the three Littles we read all list egg whites.
Dr. Praeger’s Sweet Potato Littles
Sweet potato, potato flakes, oil, egg whites, brown sugar, arrowroot and sea salt, and the label says “Contains: Egg”. If you were looking for a sweet potato bite without egg, this isn’t it.
Dr. Praeger’s Spinach Littles
Built like the broccoli version, with spinach in front: spinach, potatoes, onions, potato flakes, oil, then egg whites, and egg declared. Same answer.
Reading a bag before it goes in the cart
Start at the Contains line. Milk and egg are among the nine major food allergens, and a US label has to name them, either in the ingredient list or in a Contains statement. On the Green Giant and Dr. Praeger’s bags, that one line gives the answer without reading the whole list. Bacon isn’t one of the nine, so the Contains line won’t flag it on the cheese and bacon bag; the name and the list do.
On a potato bag with no Contains line, read for natural flavor. On these potato lists, it is the only ingredient that could come from an animal without the list saying so; our guide to reading labels for animal ingredients covers the others worth a second look.
For a bag that leaves nothing to guess, Ore-Ida Extra Crispy. Ore-Ida Golden and Grown in Idaho Super Crispy are vegan by their lists if you’re comfortable with an unnamed natural flavor. Leave the veggie tots from both brands we read in the freezer. Our vegan grocery list covers the rest of the cart.
Sources
- Kraft Heinz, Ore-Ida Golden Tater Tots
- Kraft Heinz, Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Tater Tots
- Grown in Idaho (Lamb Weston), Super Crispy Tots
- Green Giant, Veggie Tots Cauliflower (ingredient panel on the product page)
- Green Giant, Veggie Tots Broccoli & Cheese
- Green Giant, Veggie Tots Cauliflower & Cheese with Bacon
- Green Giant, Veggie Tots Zucchini & Parmesan Cheese
- Dr. Praeger’s, Broccoli Littles
- Dr. Praeger’s, Sweet Potato Littles
- Dr. Praeger’s, Spinach Littles
- eCFR, 21 CFR 101.22(a)(3): definition of natural flavor
- FDA, Food allergies: the nine major food allergens and how labels declare them
