What Is Vegan Bacon?
Vegan bacon is a plant-based strip made to mimic the smoky, salty, fatty profile of pork bacon without using any animal products. Unlike a lot of meat substitutes that lean on a single protein source, vegan bacon is made from a wider spread of bases than almost any other category in the plant-based aisle: seitan (vital wheat gluten), soy protein, coconut oil, rice flour, mushroom mycelium, tofu, and even fermented kelp. That variety is why the category is so inconsistent — a seitan-based bacon chews like jerky, a coconut-oil-based bacon shatters like a chip, and a soy-based bacon can land somewhere dry and cardboard-like in between.
The category has also gotten more crowded and more legitimate since bacon-adjacent brands like Sweet Earth, Upton's Naturals, and newer entrants like Hooray Foods and MyBacon started treating "does it actually crisp up" as the core engineering problem, rather than just flavoring soy strips and calling it done. Older-generation vegan bacon (think shelf-stable soy strips from the 2000s and 2010s) was built primarily to be shelf-stable and cheap, not to replicate the actual physics of bacon cooking in a pan. The newer wave is explicitly trying to solve for rendering fat, browning, and the smell that fills a kitchen when bacon hits a hot skillet — which is why the ingredient bases have diversified so much in the last few years.
We looked at six of the most widely available options in 2026 — Sweet Earth Benevolent Bacon, Upton's Naturals Bacon Seitan, Hooray Foods Plant Bacon, Lightlife Smart Bacon, MyBacon, and Thrilling Foods Bakon Strips — to see which ones are worth buying and which ones are better left in the freezer case. We also flag one extremely common trap: a bacon-style product sold right next to genuinely vegan options that is not, in fact, vegan at all.
Ingredients: What's Actually in Vegan Bacon
Most vegan bacon on the market today falls into one of four ingredient categories:
- Seitan / vital wheat gluten: Used by Sweet Earth's Benevolent Bacon and Upton's Naturals Bacon Seitan. Chewy, high in protein, but not gluten-free and can turn tough if overcooked.
- Soy protein: Used by Lightlife Smart Bacon and many older-generation brands. Cheap and widely available, but often criticized for being dry and lacking the fat content that makes bacon crispy.
- Coconut oil + starches: Used by Hooray Foods, which relies on coconut oil, rice flour, tapioca starch, and beet juice for color. This is the closest thing to replicating bacon's fat-rendering behavior in a pan, since coconut oil actually melts and crisps the way pork fat does.
- Mushroom mycelium: Used by MyBacon, which builds its strips from mushroom root structure combined with coconut oil and beet juice. This is one of the newer approaches and tends to produce a chewier, more savory result closer to Canadian bacon than crispy American-style strips.
Almost every brand uses beet juice or beet powder for the pink-red color, and liquid smoke or hickory smoke concentrate for the signature smoky flavor. If you're checking a label yourself, run it through the spvegan.com ingredient checker before assuming a "bacon-style" product is automatically vegan.
One more thing worth knowing before you shop: fat content is doing most of the work in whether a strip actually crisps in the pan. Bacon's signature texture comes from rendered fat, and vegan bases handle that very differently. Coconut oil melts and browns in a way that's genuinely close to pork fat behavior, which is why brands built around it (Hooray Foods, MyBacon) tend to crisp better than lean, low-fat seitan options like Upton's Naturals, which stay closer to jerky or deli-meat territory no matter how they're cooked. If you're choosing based on texture alone, check the fat-per-serving number on the label as a rough proxy for how well a strip will crisp.
Is Vegan Bacon Actually Vegan?
Most products labeled "plant-based bacon" or "veggie bacon" are vegan, but this is one of the few categories where you genuinely cannot assume that from the name alone. The most important trap: MorningStar Farms bacon strips are not vegan. Despite sitting in the same freezer section as other meat alternatives and being marketed as a "veggie" product, MorningStar's bacon strips contain egg whites and nonfat milk. It's one of the most commonly mistaken products in the entire plant-based aisle, and it catches even experienced vegan shoppers because MorningStar also sells genuinely vegan items right next to it.
The six brands below — Sweet Earth Benevolent Bacon, Upton's Naturals Bacon Seitan, Hooray Foods, Lightlife Smart Bacon, MyBacon, and Thrilling Foods Bakon — are all confirmed vegan, with no dairy, egg, or other animal-derived ingredients in their standard recipes. As always, double-check the current label before buying, since brands do occasionally reformulate.
Nutrition Comparison
BrandServing SizeCaloriesProteinFatBase Ingredient
Sweet Earth Benevolent Bacon
2 slices (38g)
90
10g
3.5g
Seitan (wheat gluten)
Upton's Naturals Bacon Seitan
~2 oz
~110
8g
<1g
Seitan (wheat gluten)
Hooray Foods Plant Bacon
2 slices
110
0g
~9g
Coconut oil, rice flour
Lightlife Smart Bacon
2 slices
60
5g
3g
Soy protein
MyBacon Original
2 slices
~90
~3g
~7g
Mushroom mycelium, coconut oil
If protein is your priority, seitan-based options like Sweet Earth and Upton's pull well ahead of soy- or coconut-based bacon. If you're after the fat content that helps a strip actually crisp and render in the pan, Hooray Foods and MyBacon are built around that instead, at the cost of protein.
Taste and Texture: How Each One Actually Cooks
This is where vegan bacon lives or dies, and it's also where the brands diverge the most.
Hooray Foods consistently comes out as the crispiest and most bacon-like of the group in independent taste tests, largely because its coconut-oil base genuinely renders and crisps in a hot pan the way pork fat does. It needs to sit at room temperature before cooking, and it's soy-free and gluten-free, which makes it one of the more allergy-friendly picks.
Sweet Earth's Benevolent Bacon (Hickory & Sage) has a flavor profile that leans more toward smoky soyrizo than classic bacon — chipotle and cumin notes come through strongly. It's a strong pick for breakfast burritos and tacos, less so if you want a strip that tastes like diner bacon on its own.
Upton's Naturals Bacon Seitan cooks fast (3–5 minutes) and has the highest protein content of the group, but the texture is tougher and chewier than crispy — better pan-fried than baked, since baking dries it out further.
Lightlife Smart Bacon is the most widely available and cheapest option, but it's also the least exciting: reviewers consistently describe it as closer to bacon bits in flavor than a proper strip, and it tends to dry out rather than crisp.
MyBacon uses mushroom mycelium wrapped in coconut oil, and produces a firm, chewy strip that's closer to Canadian bacon than crispy American-style strips, with a savory, smoky, umami-forward flavor.
Thrilling Foods Bakon Strips use a smoked and dry-salt-cured tofu base with soy milk, palm oil, and maple syrup, producing a bold, umami-and-caramelized-sweetness combination with a crisp-yet-chewy bite, though availability is limited and pricing runs premium.
Vegan Bacon vs. Other Bacon Alternatives
ProductBest ForWatch Out For
Hooray Foods Plant Bacon
Crispiest texture, allergy-friendly (soy-free, gluten-free)
Needs to come to room temp before cooking
Sweet Earth Benevolent Bacon
Burritos, tacos, dishes wanting a spiced/smoky punch
Doesn't taste like classic diner bacon
Upton's Naturals Bacon Seitan
Highest protein, fast-cooking
Tough/chewy, not gluten-free, limited retail availability
Lightlife Smart Bacon
Budget option, widest availability
Dries out, flavor is flat compared to newer brands
MyBacon
Savory, meaty, Canadian-bacon-style texture
Pricier, sold mostly through specialty retailers
MorningStar Farms Bacon Strips
Not applicable — not vegan
Contains egg whites and nonfat milk
How to Cook Vegan Bacon So It Doesn't Turn Out Soggy
The single biggest mistake people make with vegan bacon is treating it like real bacon in the microwave. Because most plant-based strips don't have the fat volume of pork bacon, microwaving tends to steam them rather than crisp them, leaving a soggy, rubbery result no matter how good the brand is. Pan-frying over medium heat, without crowding the pan, is the most reliable method across every brand we looked at. A few brand-specific notes worth knowing: Hooray Foods recommends letting strips reach room temperature before cooking so the coconut oil can render properly; seitan-based bacon (Sweet Earth, Upton's) cooks fast, typically 3–5 minutes, and turns tough if left on the heat too long; and thicker-cut options like Thrilling Foods benefit from a slightly lower heat and longer cook time to render through the middle without burning the exterior.
Who Should Buy Which One
If you want the closest thing to real bacon behavior in a pan — actual rendering, actual crisping — buy Hooray Foods. It's also one of the better picks if you're avoiding soy or gluten, since it's made without either. If you're building breakfast tacos or burritos and want a smoky, spiced protein rather than a literal bacon clone, Sweet Earth's Benevolent Bacon is the better fit, and it's also one of the more widely stocked options at mainstream grocery chains. If protein per serving is what you're optimizing for — say, you're using bacon as a meal component rather than a garnish — Upton's Naturals wins on paper, but expect a chewier bite and plan to track it down online if your local store doesn't carry it. If you just want an affordable, easy-to-find bacon flavor for sprinkling into a dish rather than eating as a standalone strip, Lightlife Smart Bacon is the least effort and least cost, even if it's the least impressive on its own. And if you want something that eats more like a savory deli meat than a crispy breakfast strip — good on a sandwich rather than next to eggs — MyBacon is worth seeking out, budget permitting.
Final Verdict
Vegan bacon has improved significantly, but there's still no single product that nails everything — crispiness, protein, price, and availability keep trading off against each other depending on the ingredient base. For most people cooking at home who care most about the pan behavior and flavor of real bacon, Hooray Foods Plant Bacon is the strongest overall pick in 2026, with Sweet Earth's Benevolent Bacon as the best runner-up for anyone who wants a bolder, spiced flavor rather than a literal clone.
Overall Rating: 7.8/10 — a meaningfully improved category from a few years ago, but still worth reading labels carefully and adjusting cooking method (pan-fry, don't microwave) to get a result worth eating.
