Nutter Butters are one of the best-selling sandwich cookies in the United States, so it is no surprise that the question surrounding their vegan friendliness has popped up numerous times.
In this article, we are going to be looking at the ingredients to be found within the Nutter Butter to see if they can be considered vegan-friendly cookies. Let’s get started.
What Is A Nutter Butter?
First introduced in 1969 in the United States, Nutter Butters are a brand of sandwich cookie that began with the original peanut butter flavor.
The distinctive design of the cookies played on this peanut butter theme by having them shaped like peanuts.
Are Nutter Butter Cookies Vegan?
Yes! Almost every iteration of the Nutter Butter cookie is indeed vegan, though there is one exception, that being the Fudge Covered Nutter Butter.
However, there is the inclusion of some often debated ingredients that could reduce the vegan friendliness of the Nutter Butter.
Before we look at each Nutter Butter type more specifically, let’s first look at these particularly controversial ingredients.
Sugar
The vegan community is often divided when it comes to the inclusion of sugar in a product. This is because certain cane sugars go through a refining process in order to obtain the white color.
This process involves animal bone char and whilst sugar itself doesn’t include any bone char particles within it, it is not considered a vegan process.
It can be difficult to know for certain whether a certain food product includes sugar that has been through this refining process, as it is not typically stated on packets.
Some stricter vegans will avoid products with any sugar included unless it especially states that it is vegan-friendly on the packaging.
Food Coloring
Due to certain food coloring being tested on animals, the inclusion of food colors in products is a controversial one amongst vegans.
Artificial And Natural Flavors
Both natural flavors and artificial flavors in candies and cookies tend to be plant-based, but there are times when they can be derived from animal products.
However, these will normally be highlighted on the packets.
Palm Fat and Palm Oil
This is another ingredient that doesn’t actually contain any animal-derived products, but the method by which it is obtained is controversial.
Palm oil is often associated with deforestation and the destruction of the habitats of wild animals, leading to unnecessary death.
Because of this, many vegans steer clear of any and all palm oil products.
Nutter Butter Products
So, which Nutter Butter products are vegan? Let’s go through them all and have an in-depth look.
Traditional Nutter Butters
These are completely vegan due to featuring only plant-based ingredients, though they do also feature some of those aforementioned controversial ingredients.
Some of the vegan-friendly ingredients in your standard Nutter Butter cookie include peanut oil, peanut butter, peanuts, canola oil, and soybean oils.
Fudge-Covered Nutter Butters
The fudge coating of these Nutter Butters, unfortunately, makes them not so vegan friendly, as it contains non-fat milk.
Nutter Butter Cereal
Yep, Nutter Butter not only has cereal, but it is vegan-friendly cereal!
The cereal features plant-based ingredients such as whole grain oat flour, hydrogenated vegetable oil, and- of course, peanuts and peanut butter.
Nutter Butter Bites
These mini versions of the traditional Nutter Butters are also vegan-friendly as they include the exact same ingredients as the standard cookie, just in smaller bite-sized pieces.
Nutter Butter Cream Patties
Last but not least, these crème patties are a creamy take on the traditional Nutter Butters, and they are also a vegan-friendly snack.
The Nutter Butter Cream Patties are crispy wafers that are filled with a peanut butter crème, so it would be understandable if you assumed that they had some kind of dairy within them.
This isn’t the case though, as they are perfectly suitable for vegans to munch on as they feature very similar ingredients to the traditional Nutter Butter.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, almost all the major Nutter Butter products are in fact perfectly well-suited for vegan consumption!
Don’t be too disheartened by the non-vegan nature of the Fudge Covered Nutter Butters, as you can easily transform a regular Nutter Butter into a vegan-friendly Fudge Covered Nutter Butter by making your own vegan chocolate- or melting down some store-bought vegan chocolate – to dip your Nutter Butter into.
Make sure to mark the Nutter Butters down as one tasty treat that you can indulge in if you abide by a vegan diet.
