What Are Refried Beans?
Refried beans are pinto (or occasionally black) beans that have been cooked, mashed, and then fried again — hence the name, even though the "re-" in "refried" is actually a mistranslation of the Spanish refritos, which more accurately means "well-fried" rather than "fried twice." Canned refried beans are a staple in Mexican and Tex-Mex cooking: burritos, tostadas, nachos, and taco night side dishes all lean on them. The base ingredients are simple — cooked beans, water, salt, and spices — which is exactly why most shoppers assume every can is automatically vegan.
That assumption is wrong often enough to matter. The core bean-and-spice recipe is plant-based, but the fat used to fry the beans is where a huge percentage of canned refried beans quietly go non-vegan, and it's rarely obvious from the front of the can.
Why Refried Beans Are Ambiguous for Vegans
Frying beans — whether on a stovetop at home or in a factory production line — needs fat, and traditional Mexican refried beans have historically been made with lard, rendered pork fat, for both flavor and texture reasons. That tradition carried directly into the canned-food aisle: several of the best-known national refried bean brands still use lard in their "traditional" or "original" product lines, right alongside genuinely plant-based versions from the same company sitting a few inches away on the shelf.
This is the single most common trap in the category: a brand can have both a lard-based traditional can and a vegetarian or vegan-friendly can using vegetable oil instead, with nearly identical packaging, and the only real tell is the ingredient list on the back. "Vegetarian" printed on the label is also a stronger signal here than in most food categories, since brands use it specifically to distinguish the no-lard version from their standard line — but it's still worth reading the ingredients rather than trusting the front-of-can label alone, since "vegetarian" doesn't guarantee "vegan" if trace dairy or other animal-derived flavorings sneak in elsewhere.
The Ingredient to Watch: Lard
Lard is rendered pig fat, used in refried beans for its frying properties and the richness it adds to the mashed texture. It's unambiguously not vegan — there's no version of "lard" that isn't animal-derived — and unlike some of the more obscure additives covered elsewhere on this site (isinglass, carmine, bone char), it's usually printed plainly on the ingredient list rather than hidden behind a vague catch-all term. That's actually good news for vegan shoppers: this is one of the easier animal ingredients to catch, as long as you take the extra ten seconds to flip the can over.
The other ingredient worth a glance is "natural flavor," which shows up in some organic and specialty lines. As with most packaged foods, this catch-all term can legally include plant, animal, or dairy-derived compounds without further disclosure, and at least one major brand's own consumer materials acknowledge this ambiguity rather than denying it. It's a smaller risk than lard by volume, but it's the reason some strict vegans treat even "vegetarian" labeled refried beans with a bit of caution unless the brand has pursued a formal vegan certification.
Brand-by-Brand Breakdown
- Old El Paso Traditional Refried Beans — Not vegan. The ingredient list reads: cooked pinto beans, water, and (at 2% or less) lard, salt, vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder, spice, and chili pepper. Lard is listed plainly, so this one is easy to rule out once you check the back label.
- Rosarita Traditional Refried Beans — Not vegan. Also lard-based: cooked beans, water, and under 2% lard, salt, distilled vinegar, chile pepper, onion powder, spices, garlic powder, and natural flavor.
- Rosarita Vegetarian Refried Beans — Vegan-friendly. This line swaps canola oil in for the lard used in the traditional recipe, with the remaining seasonings staying comparable. Rosarita hasn't pursued a formal vegan certification for this line, so treat it as vegan-friendly rather than certified.
- Amy's Organic Refried Beans (Traditional, Black Bean, and Green Chile varieties) — Vegan. Amy's Kitchen builds its refried bean lines around organic pinto or black beans with onion, garlic, and spices, with no lard or animal-derived fats in any variety. This is generally considered the safest, most trusted pick in the category for strict vegans who want to skip label-reading entirely.
This isn't an exhaustive list of every refried bean product on shelves — store brands and regional labels vary — but the pattern holds across the category: look for "traditional" or "original" on a can from a brand that also sells a "vegetarian" line, and assume the traditional version uses lard until the ingredient list proves otherwise.
How to Check a Can of Refried Beans
Flip the can over and scan the ingredient list for "lard," "pork fat," or "animal fat" — any of those rule it out immediately. If the list instead shows a vegetable oil (canola, soybean, or sunflower oil), that's a strong sign the product is vegan-friendly. Front-of-can words to look for: "vegetarian," "vegan," or "meatless" are all reliable positive signals when a brand uses them, since including a false vegetarian claim would be a labeling violation. When a can doesn't use any of those words and doesn't list its fat source clearly, treat it as a lard-based product until you can confirm otherwise — refried beans are one category where the default assumption should lean cautious rather than optimistic.
If you're stocking a pantry and want to skip the label-reading step entirely, running a specific product name through the spvegan.com ingredient checker is the fastest way to confirm before you buy, especially for regional or store-brand cans that don't have the same name recognition as Amy's or Rosarita.
Nutrition Comparison: Lard vs. Vegan Versions
Beyond the vegan question, the fat swap also shows up in the nutrition panel. Lard-based traditional recipes tend to carry a bit more saturated fat per serving than their vegetable-oil counterparts, since lard is roughly 40% saturated fat compared to canola oil's roughly 7%. Here's a general comparison of how the two styles typically stack up per half-cup serving — exact numbers vary by can size and specific product, so always check your own label.
| Style | Typical Calories | Typical Fat | Saturated Fat | Fat Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional (lard-based) | 100-120 | 2-3g | ~1g | Lard |
| Vegetarian/vegan (oil-based) | 90-110 | 1-2g | 0-0.5g | Canola or soybean oil |
The difference per serving is modest in absolute terms — refried beans aren't a high-fat food either way — but for anyone tracking saturated fat specifically, the oil-based versions edge out the lard-based ones on that metric in addition to being animal-free.
What About Restaurant Refried Beans?
Canned beans are only half the picture — refried beans served at Mexican restaurants are a completely separate risk, and often a worse one, since restaurant kitchens frequently use lard specifically because it's cheaper and, in the eyes of many cooks, produces a better texture than oil. Unlike a can, there's no ingredient label to check at a restaurant table, which means the only reliable way to know is to ask directly whether the beans are made with lard or oil. Vegan-focused restaurants and modern Mexican spots increasingly default to oil or advertise a vegan menu section, but traditional taquerias and diners should not be assumed vegan-friendly on the beans just because the rest of a dish (rice, salsa, tortillas) usually is.
Making Your Own Vegan Refried Beans
If you'd rather sidestep the guesswork entirely, homemade refried beans are genuinely simple and put you in full control of the fat. Cook dried or canned pinto beans until soft, then mash them in a pan with a neutral vegetable oil (or a splash of the bean cooking liquid for a lower-fat version), sautéed onion, garlic, cumin, and chili powder. This also tends to taste noticeably fresher than canned versions, and it's the only guaranteed way to know exactly what fat went into the pot — useful if you're cooking for a mixed household where some diners are strict vegan and others aren't picky about the difference.
Why This Matters More Than It Seems
Refried beans are easy to overlook precisely because the base ingredient — beans — reads as an obviously vegan food, the same way people tend to assume bread, pasta, or wine are automatically safe before learning about egg washes, egg pasta, or fining agents. Refried beans belong in that same category of "hiding in plain sight" animal ingredients: the food itself isn't the problem, a single processing step is. That's also why this is a useful category to get comfortable checking once and remembering going forward — once you know Old El Paso's traditional line uses lard and Amy's doesn't, that knowledge holds until a company reformulates, which is far less mental overhead than re-litigating the question every grocery trip.
Bottom Line
Refried beans are a genuine 50/50 category rather than a safe default the way plain cooked beans are. Several major national brands, including Old El Paso and Rosarita's traditional lines, use lard as the frying fat and are not vegan, while other lines from those same companies — plus fully vegan brands like Amy's — use vegetable oil instead and are safe. The good news is that lard is one of the easier animal ingredients to spot: it's almost always printed plainly on the label rather than hidden in a vague catch-all term, so a quick flip of the can before it goes in your cart is usually all it takes to know for sure.
