What Is Hooray Foods Plant-Based Bacon?
Hooray Foods built its entire product around a single complaint most vegan bacon fails to solve: it doesn't actually crisp up in a pan the way real bacon does. Instead of starting from a wheat-gluten or soy-protein base like most competitors, Hooray uses coconut oil as its foundation — the same fat-forward logic that makes real pork bacon crisp when it hits high heat. The result is a refrigerated bacon strip sold in 5 oz packages (about 10 strips per package) that's marketed specifically on its ability to sizzle, crisp, and curl in a skillet or air fryer, rather than on protein content or a "meat-like" chew.
That's a meaningfully different approach from a seitan-based product like Upton's Naturals Bacon Seitan or a formulated soy/wheat-protein slice like Sweet Earth or Lightlife, and it puts Hooray in a different lane entirely: this is a bacon built to solve the crisp problem first, with everything else — protein, gluten-free status, ingredient simplicity — following from that starting choice.
Hooray is a smaller, venture-backed startup rather than a legacy natural-foods brand, and its whole pitch centers on the idea that most vegan bacon fails not on flavor but on the physical experience of cooking and eating it — the sizzle in the pan, the curl of the strip, the audible crunch on the first bite. Whether that's worth the tradeoffs below depends heavily on what you're using bacon for in the first place.
Ingredients
The current ingredient list is: water, coconut oil, white rice flour, pea starch, tapioca starch, natural flavors, curdlan gum, salt, natural smoke flavoring, maple syrup, gum acacia, apple extract, beet juice concentrate, purple sweet potato extract, yeast extract, inactive dried yeast, lemon juice concentrate.
This is a longer list than Upton's eight-ingredient seitan formula, and it reflects the different engineering problem Hooray is solving — getting a plant-based fat to behave like animal fat under heat takes more supporting ingredients (gums for structure, extracts for color and umami) than simply seasoning wheat gluten does. Notably, this is a pea starch, not a pea protein isolate, so it contributes texture rather than meaningful protein. Beet juice and purple sweet potato extract are doing the color work that nitrites and myoglobin do in real bacon, and yeast extract supplies savory depth alongside the natural smoke flavoring. If you're checking a bacon alternative not covered here, run the full panel through the spvegan.com ingredient checker — coconut-oil-based bacons in particular can vary a lot in exactly how they build umami and color without meat.
Is Hooray Foods Plant-Based Bacon Vegan?
Yes. Every ingredient on the list is plant-derived — coconut oil, rice flour, pea and tapioca starch, plant gums, fruit and vegetable extracts, and yeast extract — with nothing from an animal source. The product does carry a tree nut allergen warning because of the coconut oil; coconut is botanically a drupe rather than a tree nut, but the FDA classifies it as a tree nut for labeling purposes, so it shows up on the allergen line even though it has no bearing on the product's vegan status. If you have an actual coconut or tree nut allergy, that's the one ingredient here worth taking seriously regardless of the vegan question.
Nutrition Facts Comparison
| Product | Serving Size | Calories | Protein | Total Fat | Sodium | Carbs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hooray Foods Plant-Based Bacon | 2 strips | 80 | 0g | 5g | Not published in sources checked | 8g |
| Upton's Naturals Bacon Seitan | 2 oz (57g) | 80 | 15g | 0.5g | 400mg | 5g |
| Sweet Earth Benevolent Bacon | 2 slices (38g) | 90 | 10g | 3.5g | 160mg | 6g |
| Lightlife Smart Bacon | 2 slices (20g) | 40 | 5g | 2g | 290mg | 1g |
This table makes the tradeoff obvious: Hooray lands at the same calorie count as Upton's seitan bacon (80 calories) but with essentially none of the protein — its pea starch and rice flour base isn't built to deliver protein the way vital wheat gluten or a soy/wheat blend is. If you're choosing a bacon alternative specifically to add protein to a meal, this isn't the product for that job. If you're choosing one specifically for how it behaves in a hot pan, the calculus flips, which is the next section.
Taste and Texture
This is where Hooray's coconut-oil approach pays off most clearly. Reviewers consistently describe the cooked texture as genuinely crispy and crunchy — closer to real fried pork bacon than the firmer, chewier bite you get from seitan or formulated protein slices. The flavor comes through as salty and umami-forward, with a coconut note in the background that most reviewers found complementary rather than distracting, though it's a real characteristic of the product and not something you can fully cook out — anyone with a strong aversion to coconut flavor should know that going in. Cooking is fast: about 90 seconds per side in a skillet over medium-low heat, or 5 to 10 minutes in an air fryer at 375°F until it reaches the crispness you want. That air-fryer compatibility is a genuine advantage over most seitan-based bacon, which tends to dry out or toughen rather than crisp under dry, high-heat air-fryer conditions.
Hooray Foods vs. the Alternatives
| Hooray Foods | Upton's Naturals | Sweet Earth | Lightlife | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base ingredient | Coconut oil + rice/pea/tapioca starch | Vital wheat gluten (seitan) | Soy/wheat protein blend | Soy/wheat protein blend |
| Gluten-free | Yes | No | No | No |
| Protein per serving | Essentially none | High (15g/57g) | Moderate (10g/38g) | Lower (5g/20g) |
| Crisps like fried pork bacon | Crisps well (oil-based) | Some chew, less crisp | Moderate crisp | Moderate crisp |
| Air-fryer friendly | Yes, purpose-suited | Not ideal | Works reasonably | Works reasonably |
| Ingredient list length | Longer, engineered for crisp | Short (8 ingredients) | Longer, formulated | Longer, formulated |
Tips for Getting the Best Crisp
A few details make a real difference with an oil-based bacon like this one. Starting the pan at medium-low rather than high heat gives the coconut oil time to render out gradually the way pork fat does, rather than scorching the outside while the center stays soft — cranking the heat to get a fast sear tends to backfire here. Letting the strips rest for a minute on a paper towel or wire rack after cooking helps the crisp set, since the strips continue to firm up slightly as they cool, similar to real bacon. For the air fryer, laying strips flat without overlap and checking at the 5-minute mark before adding more time avoids overcooking, since the coconut-oil base can go from crisp to overly hard fairly quickly once it passes the ideal point. Some reviewers also note that a light pat-down with a paper towel before cooking helps remove surface moisture and improves crisping, a trick that works for the same reason it helps with real bacon.
Price and Availability
Hooray Foods is sold refrigerated, typically in the same section as other plant-based meat alternatives, through retailers like Whole Foods and via grocery delivery services including Good Eggs and Instacart in various regions — availability is more regional than a mass-market brand like Lightlife, so it's worth checking a store locator or delivery app before assuming it's on a nearby shelf. A 5 oz package running around ten dollars puts it in a comparable price range to other refrigerated plant-based bacon brands rather than at a discount-brand price point, which tracks with its positioning as a more engineered, texture-focused product rather than a basic pantry staple.
Who Should Buy This
Hooray Foods is the clear pick for anyone whose main complaint about vegan bacon is texture — specifically, the lack of a genuine crisp. If you've tried seitan-based or formulated soy bacon and found it too chewy, spongy, or soft compared to real fried bacon, this is the product built to solve exactly that problem, and it's also a solid option for anyone who needs gluten-free, since it contains no wheat at all. It's a strong match for BLTs, bacon-topped burgers, or a straightforward breakfast side where crisp texture and smoky-salty flavor matter more than protein content.
It's a weaker fit if you're specifically trying to add protein to a plant-based meal — with essentially no protein per serving, it functions more like a flavor-and-texture condiment than a protein source, unlike Upton's Naturals, which delivers a meaningful 15g per serving. It's also worth a pass if you have a genuine coconut allergy or a strong dislike of coconut flavor, since that note is baked into the formula rather than an optional add-in.
Final Verdict
Hooray Foods set out to solve the one thing most vegan bacon gets wrong — actual crispiness — and it delivers on that promise better than the seitan- and soy-based alternatives on this list. The tradeoffs are the ones you'd expect from an oil-based formula: essentially no protein, a longer ingredient list built to replicate fat behavior rather than meat texture, and a coconut flavor note that's central to the product rather than incidental. If crisp texture is your top priority in a vegan bacon, this is one of the better options available; if protein content matters more to you than crisp, Upton's Naturals Bacon Seitan is the better choice.
Rating: 7.5/10 — genuinely excellent texture and cooking performance for a plant-based bacon, held back by essentially zero protein and a coconut flavor that won't work for everyone.
