If you're vegan or are thinking of going vegan, you may be wondering if your favorite snacks are actually vegan. One popular snack food that sometimes sparks debate about its vegan status is Doritos. Are Doritos vegan? Let's take a closer look.
However, not everyone knows that all Doritos are not vegan-friendly. In this blog post, we will discuss whether or not Doritos are vegan and what ingredients decide it's vegan or not. We will also see what flavors are vegan and what flavor of Doritos are not.
What are Doritos?
Doritos are popular snacks in America and many countries. These are nothing but fried and flavored tortilla chips. The brand "Doritos" belongs to Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. This is in fact one of the first tortilla chips launched nationally in the United States in 1966. These delicious tortilla chips come in hundreds of different flavors.
Are Doritos Vegan?
Are Doritos vegan? According to the official Doritos website, these tortilla chips are not vegan. However, there are a number of reasons to understand why they are not completely vegan and which flavors are good for the vegan diet.
For a few flavors, Doritos tortilla chips have plant-based and vegan-friendly ingredients, including ground corn, potatoes, and spices. In addition, they are fried in vegetable oil or sunflower oil and do not contain any milk ingredients or meat products/ animal products. As a result, such Doritos flavors are suitable for vegans, while others may not be suitable for vegans as they do contain traces of milk and cheese.
However, veganism is beyond plant-based ingredients for many people. They prefer to buy from companies that don't have any other animal-driven or animal testing of products. There is also a chance of contamination during handling the dairy products.
Also, check - Are M&M's Vegan?
Which flavors of Doritos are vegan?
While there are 100s of flavors from Doritos, individually it's difficult to mention each of the categories and find out whether it's vegan or not. But in a broader sense, there are few Dorito flavors that are completely plant-based since they don't contain any traces of cheese or any other dairy products. They have only vegan ingredients.
Spicy Sweet Chilli - Vegan
Toasted Corn tortilla chips - Vegan
Blaze Doritos - Vegan
Chilli Heatwave - Vegan
Salsa Verde Doritos - not Vegan (natural flavors and artificial flavors including natural chicken flavor)
Cool Ranch - Not Vegan (Contains lactose, buttermilk, whey, cheese, etc)
Nacho Cheese Doritos - Sadly the most popular Doritos flavor is not vegan.
Blazin' Buffalo & Ranch - Not Vegan (Contains multiple kinds of cheese, cream, sour cream, buttermilk, etc)
Dinamita Chile Lemon - Not Vegan (Contains cheese, whey protein)
Blaze & Ultimate Cheddar - Not Vegan (Cheese, dairy, whey, etc)
Flamas Doritos - Cheddar cheese, buttermilk, skim milk, whey protein, whey protein concentrate, etc.
You just need to do a quick scan of the ingredients before grabbing any packets of the chips. Most of them are not fit for vegan since they contain dairy items/ milk products like lactic acid, lactose, skim milk, buttermilk, milk protein, multiple types of cheese (Romano cheese, Cheddar Cheese, Blue Cheese, Parmesan cheese, etc), and animal ingredients like animal fat ( chicken fat in some like Jacked Ranch Dipped Hot Wings Doritos, etc).
Can Vegans Eat Doritos?
Considering these factors while many of them are not plant-based, Doritos chips may not be fit for the vegan lifestyle (Strict Vegans) where they completely refrain from buying such companies that are involved in handling dairy products (animal cruelty) as well evenif some of the chips flavors are completely plant-based.
There is also a huge risk of cross-contamination between the vegan and non-vegan flavors.
However, if you are only into a plant-based diet, you can choose the vegan ones without any milk ingredients and animal ingredients.
Substitute for Doritos
If you're in vegan lifestyle, looking for a vegan-friendly snack, there are plenty of other options available. Chips made with lentils or beans, for example, are a good alternative to Doritos. Some of the popular brands are Frito's original, BBQ Pingle, Taco Bell's Tortilla chips, Beanfields Chips, etc.
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