Mentos is a popular mint and chewing gum brand known for its minty freshness, fruity flavor, and bite-sized tablets (and for dropping in a bottle of Coke as a science experiment!). But although it can be tempting to pop a Mentos or two from time to time, all vegans need to be aware of the main ingredients in Mentos – and whether Mentos are really vegan-friendly or not – before breaking open a roll.
Most Mentos are not vegan because they contain ingredients sourced from potentially non-vegan origins, like cattle bones. However, there are a few Mentos varieties that are vegan such as Mentos Gum, Mentos Mints, and Mentos Hard Mints, as these lack non-vegan ingredients. The best vegan alternative to Mentos are Tic-Tacs, Polo Mints, and Peppersmith Mints.
Today, let’s break down which Mentos are vegan and explore potential non-vegan ingredients you might find in a package of mints or chewing gum. We will also offer vegan alternatives to Mentos. Let’s get started!
Contents
Mentos Ingredients
As you’ll see from the below breakdowns, different types of Mentos may or may not be vegan because of their ingredients. While there are over a dozen different Mentos flavors, the below four categories describe each main Mentos type – the only ingredient variations are for flavorings.
For example, all Mentos Mints have the same core ingredients with the addition or subtraction of added flavorings.
Original Mentos Mints
Many people enjoy Mentos as basic mints rather than fruit chews or as down. The ingredients for Original Mentos in the US include:
- Sugar
- Wheat glucose syrup
- Hydrogenated coconut oil
- Rice starch
- Natural flavors
- Gum Arabic
- Sucrose esters of fatty acids
- Gellan gum
- Carnauba wax
- Beeswax
Nutritional Facts:
- 10 cal per serving
- 3 g carbohydrate or 1% DV
- 2 g sugar or 4% DV
As you can see from the above ingredients, regular Mentos mints in the US are not vegan because of a few key ingredients. Beeswax, for example, is not vegan because it is an animal byproduct. Bees create beeswax, which is harvested from the hives. This could damage the hives in the long term.
Furthermore, basic Mentos contain a lot of sugar. Although sugar is vegan by definition, sometimes it is created using non-vegan processes, such as filtering with bone char (a material created from charred cattle bones).
It should be noted that not all Mentos mints include beeswax. Some flavors include the exact ingredients above save for this non-vegan additive. These potentially vegan-friendly mints include:
- Mentos Fruit
- Chewy Mint Grape
- Mentos strawberry
- Mentos spearmint
- Mentos cinnamon
However, there’s no evidence to suggest whether Mentos filters its sugar with or without bone char. Due to this possibility, we can’t claim that Mentos mints are 100% vegan, either.
Mentos Fruit
Similar to Starburst, Mentos Fruits are a line of fruity chews many people like to enjoy as a sweet snack. But Mentos Fruit chews are like Starburst in another way – they are unfortunately not vegan-friendly because of its ingredients, including:
- Beeswax
- Sugar
- Hydrogenated coconut oil
- Wheat glucose syrup
- Citric acid
- Fruit juices from concentrate including orange juice, lemon juice, and strawberry juice
- Rice starch
- Gum Arabic
- Natural flavors
- Sucrose esters of fatty acids
- Gellan gum
- Carnauba wax
- Colors including beetroot red and beta-carotene
Nutritional Facts:
- 10 cal per serving
- 3 g carbohydrate or 1% DV
- 2 g sugar or 4% DV
Beeswax, as mentioned above, is not vegan by default. So no Mentos Fruit flavor is vegan-friendly. However, the sugar may also be non-vegan depending on how Mentos filters and prepares its sugar for consumption. Our advice is to stay away and try one of the vegan-suitable alternatives we’ve broken down below.
Mentos Rainbow
Chewy Mentos Rainbows are not vegan-friendly because of their ingredients as well, including:
- Sugar
- Hydrogenated coconut oil
- Citric acid
- Manioc starch
- Natural and artificial flavors
- Glucose syrup
- Gum Arabic
- Carnauba wax
- Sucrose esters of fatty acids
- Gellan gum
- Colors including beta-carotene, beetroot red, vegetable juice, and carmine
Nutritional Facts:
- 10 cal per serving
- 3 g carbohydrate or 1% DV
- 2 g sugar or 4% DV
There’s no beeswax, so what’s the problem? Turns out, it’s carmine.
Carmine is a non-vegan ingredient since it comes from the shells of crushed beetles in Mexico and Central America. This is obviously not vegan as it involves harming animals. Additionally, the earlier reservations about sugar and the potential for bone char filtering apply here, too. All in all, Mentos Rainbows are no-gos for vegans.
Mentos Pure Fresh Mint Gum
What about Mentos Gum? All Mentos gum varieties contain the same basic ingredients with just a few differences in their flavors. These core ingredients include:
- Xylitol
- Chewing gum base
- Sorbitol
- Glycerol
- Mannitol
- Maltitol syrup
- Natural and artificial flavors
- Gum Arabic
- Titanium dioxide for color
- Gelatine
- Soy lecithin
- Aspartame
- Acesulfame K
- Green tea extract
- Carnauba wax
- Sucralose
- Sodium Carboxymethyl cellulose
- Sucralose
- Sucrose esters of fatty acids
- Blue 1
- Phenylketonurics
Nutritional Facts:
- <5 cal per serving
- 5 g carbohydrate or 1% DV
- 5 g sugar
As with Mentos mints, there are a few problematic ingredients to pay attention to. These include gelatin, which always comes from animal sources and is never vegan-friendly. However, this chewing gum also contains some other non-vegan ingredients.
Chewing gum’s base, glycerol, Blue 1, and natural and artificial flavors may be created using animal byproducts or through processes that involve animal testing. Glycerol can sometimes be vegan, but Mentos has not revealed whether their glycerol comes from plant or animal sources.
Because of this, Mentos gum is never vegan-safe since it contains gelatin and potentially more non-vegan ingredients
Mentos Hard Mints
If you’re worried that practically no varieties of Mentos will be vegan safe, think again. Mentos’ Hard Mints actually are vegan-friendly because of their ingredients, which include:
- Xylitol
- Natural and artificial flavors
- Titanium dioxide for color
- Maltodextrin
- Magnesium salts of fatty acids
- Coconut fat
- Aspartame
- Sodium carboxymethylcellulose
- Corn starch
- Acesulfame K
- Gum Arabic
Nutritional Facts:
- 5 cal per serving
- 1 g carbohydrate
The possibly non-vegan ingredients here are the natural and artificial flavors. However, there isn’t any indication that these flavors are made using non-vegan processes or ingredients. It’s safe to say that Mentos’ Hard Mints are fine for vegans to enjoy.
Which Mentos Flavors are Vegan?
As noted earlier, whether or not a given pack of Mentos is vegan or non-vegan depends on whether it includes certain animal-derived ingredients like beeswax or gelatin. It can be tough to know which Mentos are vegan-friendly, so here’s a breakdown of the likeliest – not 100% – vegan-safe Mentos to try.
- Mentos Gum – Pure Fresh Spearmint, Pure White Sweet Mint, Watermelon, and Red Fruit Lime
- Mentos Mints – Mentos Green Apple
- Mentos Hard Mints – Cleanbreath Peppermint and Wintergreen
It’s not a lot of choices. But remember that you can always look at the back of any given Mentos pack and examine the ingredients for yourself. Be sure to check for beeswax and gelatin, as well as carmine for coloring. Those are the big non-vegan ingredients you’re likely to see used in this mint/gum brand.
Healthy Vegan Alternatives to Mentos
Tic-Tacs
Tic-Tacs are some of the most popular mints around, and for good reason; they come in tons of different flavors and all of them are vegan-friendly thanks to their ingredients. Tic-Tacs don’t have any animal products in their ingredient lists, which include fructose, rice starch, mint essential oil, and carnauba wax as a glazing agent. However, all Tic-Tacs do include sugar – and as with Mentos, we don’t know whether the sugar was filtered using a bone char process.
That said, there isn’t a lot of it. There isn’t any evidence to suggest that Tic-Tacs are non-vegan, though they aren’t vegan certified, either.
Ingredients:
- Sugar
- Maltodextrin
- Fructose
- Gum Arabic
- Rice starch
- Anticaking agent
- Flavorings
- Mint essential oil
- Carnauba wax
Nutritional Facts:
- 10 cal per serving
- 5 g carbohydrate
- 5 g sugar
Polo Mints
Polo Mints are a basic brand of mints from the UK, and they’re a great alternative to Mentos if you want to be sure that you consume something vegan-friendly. They have a very basic ingredient list including sugar, glucose syrup modified starch, mint oils, and stearic acid. No need to worry about beeswax, gelatin, or anything else potentially problematic for your diet. That said, these may cost a little more to ship to the US, so these may be the best choice if you’re a vegan in the UK or in Europe.
Ingredients:
- Sugar
- Glucose syrup modified starch
- Mint oils
- Stearic acid
Nutritional Facts:
- 7 cal per serving
- 1 g fat
- 9 mg sodium
- 60 mg potassium
- 1 g carbohydrate
- 9 g dietary fiber
- 4 g protein
Peppersmith Mints
Or you could try Peppersmith Mints, which include another basic list of ingredients like xylitol, gum Arabic, calcium stearate, peppermint oil, menthol, eucalyptus oil, and carnauba wax. None of those are derived from animal sources, so they should be vegan safe. It might be fun to try these mints simply because they aren’t as well-known as the brands above!
Ingredients:
- Xylitol
- Gum Arabic
- Calcium stearate
- Peppermint oil
- Menthol
- Eucalyptus oil
- Carnauba wax
Nutritional Facts:
- 10 cal per serving
- 3 g fat
- 94 g carbohydrate
Final Thoughts
All in all, Mentos may not be fully vegan, but there are a few vegan-friendly Mentos varieties you can and should check out the next time you want some chewing gum or a breath-freshening mint. Fortunately, many of the best Mentos types are safe for vegans. So you can enjoy this brand of mints and chewing gum like everyone else.
Related Questions
Are Mentos Gluten-Free?
Yes, Mentos are gluten-free. This applies to all Mentos varieties.
Are Mentos Halal?
Most of them are. But there’s no way of knowing whether the gelatin in certain Mentos products comes from pigs. Our advice is to stay away from Mentos with gelatin if you’re worried about a type of mints or gum being halal.
Are Mentos Dairy-Free?
Yes, Mentos are dairy-free as they do not contain any dairy ingredients.