Tostitos is one of the most popular chips and salsa brands in the US, and they offer a ton of variety in terms of flavor, chip ingredients, and salsa spiciness levels. But because of all that variety, it can be tough to know whether your favorite Tostitos salsa is vegan or not.
Most Tostitos salsa flavors are vegan. They don’t contain any animal or dairy products, so you can enjoy Tostitos salsa with your chips with a clean conscience. That said, some Tostitos salsa flavors are non-vegan because they include whey protein concentrate or isolate. One of the best vegan alternatives to Tostito’s salsa is Simple Truth Organic Salsa.
This guide will break down which Tostitos salsas are vegan, which are not, and explore some alternatives if you want vegan salsa with a different flavor or ingredient mixture. Let’s get started!
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Is Salsa Always Vegan?
No, even though you might think so initially. After all, isn’t salsa just a bunch of chopped vegetables, tomato paste, and other spices? None of that sounds non-vegan at first.
However, some salsa brands include dairy products in their salsa cans, either to change the texture of the resulting salsa base (i.e. the tomato paste and any other core ingredients) or to add new flavor to the mixture. Because of this, vegans have to look at the ingredients behind a can of salsa carefully before dunking their favorite vegan chips, like Stacy’s Pita Chips.
Additionally, dairy products aren’t always the only non-vegan ingredients to worry about. Some ostensibly vegan ingredients can also be non-vegan because of the way they were harvested, because they were made using practices that were harmful to animals, and so on.
But there’s good news above all: most salsa is indeed vegan and you don’t normally have to worry too much about breaking your diet by accident. This is doubly true for Tostitos, which offers most of its salsa varieties to vegans since the brand uses vegetable-based ingredients more often than not.
Tostitos Salsa Nutritional Facts
Good news – there are tons of Tostitos salsa flavors you can check out if you’re a vegan. Let’s break down all the vegan-friendly Tostitos salsas one by one.
Tostitos Chunky Salsa
This core Tostitos offering is one of their most popular salsa brands. It’s totally vegan thanks to the ingredients below. Even better, you can get this in several different spiciness levels. Whether you like mild or superhot salsa, Tostitos Chunky Salsa is a good pick.
- Tomato purée (water and tomato paste)
- Diced tomatoes and tomato juice
- Jalapeno peppers
- Onions
- Salt
- Vinegar
- Garlic powder
- Natural flavors
Nutritional value:
- 10 calories per serving
- 250 mg sodium or 10% DV
- 2 g carbohydrates or 1% DV
- 1 g fiber or 4% DV
- 2 g sugar or 4% DV
The only thing to keep in mind as a vegan is that all Tostitos salsa flavors come with natural flavors. What exactly constitutes these flavors and where their ingredients come from can be hard to determine, especially since Tostitos isn’t very transparent in this regard.
Still, you shouldn’t necessarily consider any food product that includes natural flavors to be non-vegan by default.
Tostitos Restaurant Style Salsa
Tostitos Restaurant Style Salsa offers a smoother flavor and many of the same ingredients as displayed above, including:
- Diced tomatoes in tomato juice
- Water
- Unpeeled ground tomatoes and tomato purée
- Onions
- Jalapeno peppers
- Salt
- Garlic powder
- Vinegar pectin
- Sugar
- Natural flavors
- Tomato paste
- Spices including cilantro
Nutritional facts:
- 15 calories per serving
- 210 mg sodium or 9% DV
- 3 g carbohydrate or 1% DV
- 1 g fiber or 4% DV
- 1 g sugar or 4% DV
- 1 g protein or 2% DV
Tostitos Splash of Lime Flavored Chunky Salsa
Tostitos Splash of Lime Chunky Salsa is a favorite and is totally vegan safe (unlike Tostitos lime-flavored chips. Unfortunately, you can’t combine them while sticking to your vegan diet). Its ingredients include:
- Tomatoes in tomato purée
- Tomato purée (water and tomato paste)
- Jalapeno peppers
- Diced tomatoes in tomato juice
- Onions
- Salt
- Vinegar
- Roasted garlic
- Citric acid
- Lime juice concentrate
- Natural flavors
Nutritional facts:
- 10 calories per serving
- 180 mg sodium or 8% DV
- 2 g carbohydrate or 1% DV
- 1 g fiber or 4% DV
- 1 g sugar or 4% DV
Tostitos Roasted Garlic Chunky Salsa
Tostitos Roasted Garlic Chunky Salsa is also delicious and totally vegan-friendly with ingredients like:
- Tomato purée (water, tomato paste)
- Diced tomatoes and tomato juice
- Calcium chloride
- Citric acid
- Jalapeno peppers
- Water
- Onions
- Salt
- Vinegar
- Roasted garlic
- Dehydrated onions
- Garlic powder
- Natural flavors
Nutritional facts:
- 10 calories per serving
- 260 mg sodium or 11% DV
- 2 g carbohydrate or 9% DV
- 1 g fiber or 3% DV
- 2% DV of vitamin A and vitamin C
Tostitos Chunky Habanero Salsa
Tostitos Chunks Habanero Salsa includes habaneros and many of the ingredients described earlier, like:
- Tomato purée (water and tomato paste)
- Diced tomatoes in tomato juice
- Jalapeno peppers
- Onions
- Vinegar
- Salt
- Habanero peppers
- Garlic powder
- Natural flavor
Nutritional facts:
- 10 calories per serving
- 220 mg sodium or 9% DV
- 2 g carbohydrate or 1% DV
- 1 g fiber or 4% DV
- 1 g sugar or 4% DV
Tostitos Organic Chunky Medium Salsa
Tostitos Organic Chunky Medium Salsa should be a favorite for vegans thanks to its purely organic ingredients. As a result, you don’t have to worry about GMOs, artificial pesticides, or other synthetic chemicals entering your body. These include:
- Organic tomato purée (water, organic tomato paste)
- Organic diced tomatoes and organic tomato juice
- Organic onions
- Organic jalapeno peppers
- Organic vinegar
- Sea salt
- Organic garlic powder
- Organ natural flavors
Nutritional facts:
- 10 calories per serving
- 250 mg or 10.8% DV
- 2 g carbohydrate or 0.73% DV
- 1 g fiber or 3.57% DV
- 1 g sugar or 3.57% DV
Healthy Vegan Alternatives to Tostitos Salsa
Simple Truth Organic Salsa
Simple Truth’s organic salsa offering is another great choice if you’re a vegan who prefers to eat as many organic products as possible while also doing your part for the environment. This salsa also comes in mild, medium, tomatillo verde, and black bean and corn flavors depending on your preferences. It’s not too expensive, so you don’t have to break the bank to enjoy organic salsa with your other vegan-safe foods.
All the ingredients are organic and the salsa is totally free from GMOs artificial flavors or preservatives. Its organic ingredients include organic cilantro, organic cumin, organic black pepper, organic tomato purée, and much more.
Ingredients:
- Organic tomatoes and organic tomato juice
- Organic onions
- Organic chili peppers
- Organic cilantro
- Salt
- Organic roasted garlic
- Organic garlic
- Organic lime juice
- Organic white vinegar
- Citric acid
- Organic celery seed
- Water
- Organic sunflower oil
Nutritional Facts:
- 5 cal per serving
- 125 Milgram sodium or 5.43% DV
- 1 g carbohydrate or 0.36% DV
- 1 g fiber
- 1 g sugar
Muir Glen Organic Salsa
You might also try this excellent vegan salsa brand. While not all of its flavors are vegan-friendly, its mild and medium flavors definitely are. They’re also made with 100% organic ingredients, including diced tomatoes, tomato purée, diced & pepper, garlic, cilantro, jalapeno pepper purée, and more.
Ingredients:
- Organic tomato purée
- Organic tomatoes
- Organic onion
- Organic tomato juice
- Organic green bell pepper
- Organic Anaheim pepper
- Organic garlic
- Organic jalapeno peppers
- Organic cilantro
- Organic lime juice
- Organic jalapeno pepper purée
- Organic vinegar
- Citric acid
- Calcium chloride
- Sea salt
Nutritional Facts:
- 10 cal per serving
- 100 mg sodium or 4% DV
- 2 g carbohydrate or 1% DV
- 1 g sugar
Walnut Acres Midnight Sun Salsa
If you want a salsa with a very distinct flavor profile and an extra kick, Walnut Acres has you covered. It’s one of the spiciest vegan salsa products you can find, making it great for those whose taste buds are tough enough to withstand some serious heat!
This vegan salsa comes in three different flavors, including peach flavor (which is notable for its sweet heat flavoring). All of its ingredients are vegan-friendly and include organic onions, organic tomatoes, organic black beans, organic apple cider, and more.
Ingredients:
- Organic peaches
- Organic diced tomatoes
- Organic onions
- Organic tomato paste
- Organic evaporated cane juice
- Organic green peppers
- Water
- Organic apple cider vinegar
- Organic jalapeno peppers
- Organic lime juice
- Sea salt
- Organic dried garlic
- Organic spices
Nutritional Facts:
- 10 cal per serving
- 85 mg sodium or 4% DV
- 5 g carbohydrate or 2% DV
Final Thoughts
As you can see, the majority of Tostitos’ favorite salsa flavors are vegan-friendly since they don’t include any animal products or byproducts in their ingredient lists. Thanks to this plethora of choices, you can combine Tostitos salsa with several Tostitos-brand or other tortilla chips and make a tasty vegan Mexican dinner whenever you like.
However, always be sure to check the back of any salsa product before purchasing it. Some salsa cans use dairy products or may use ingredients that are vegan at first glance but are actually non-vegan because of their processing methods.
Related Questions
Is Tostitos Avocado Salsa Vegan?
No, unfortunately. While most of the ingredients in Tostitos Avocado Salsa are vegan safe, this type of salsa also includes whey protein concentrate, which is made from animal proteins. Because of this, you can’t eat Tostitos Avocado Salsa as a vegan. However, you can easily make your own avocado salsa by using one of the vegan-friendly salsas above and adding some organic avocado!
Are Tostitos Chips Vegan?
Generally, most non-flavored Tostitos chips are vegan, while some of their flavored products are not vegan. According to Frito-Lay, Tostito’s parent company, some of its products contain pork enzymes during the production process. All Tostitos Scoops, for example, are vegan since they don’t include these enzymes. You can also get Tostitos Triangle Chips like their Lightly Salted, Original Restaurant Style, Black Bean & Garlic, and other chip varieties and not have to worry about non-vegan ingredients. Tostito’s Hint of Lime, Hint of Jalapeno, and Roasted Red Pepper chips are non-vegan, on the other hand, because they include sour cream, whey, skim milk, lactose, and/or buttermilk in their ingredients.