What Marshmallows Actually Are
A marshmallow is, structurally, a whipped foam of sugar syrup held together by a gelling agent, with air beaten in until it turns fluffy and set. That gelling agent is the entire ballgame for vegans. For well over a century, the default gelling agent in commercial marshmallows has been gelatin — a protein extracted by boiling animal skin, bones, and connective tissue, almost always sourced from pigs or cows. Gelatin is what lets a marshmallow hold its whipped shape at room temperature instead of collapsing back into syrup, and it's also what gives marshmallows their specific melt-in-your-mouth texture when you bite into one.
This is why marshmallows sit in the same category as gummy candy and Jell-O for vegans: the finished product looks completely plant-based — no visible meat, no dairy on the label most people scan for — but the actual structure of the food is built from an animal byproduct that isn't obvious unless you read the ingredient panel specifically looking for the word "gelatin."
Why This Is Confusing for Vegans
Marshmallows don't trigger the usual mental checklist. People instinctively scan candy and desserts for dairy and eggs, and marshmallows have neither. There's no cream, no butter, no visible animal product anywhere in the ingredient list's first few lines — corn syrup, sugar, water, and cornstarch usually lead the label. Gelatin typically shows up further down the list, often at "less than 2%" of the formulation, which makes it easy to skim past. Unlike egg or milk, gelatin also isn't covered by U.S. allergen labeling law, so there's no bolded "Contains: Milk, Egg" warning to catch your eye — you have to actually read the ingredient itself.
On top of that, gelatin doesn't always say "gelatin" outright on international packaging, and it's occasionally listed under more generic terms like "gelling agent" without further specification, which makes the marshmallow aisle one of the more deceptively tricky sections of a grocery store for anyone checking labels quickly.
The Ingredient to Watch For: Gelatin
Gelatin is the single ingredient that determines whether a marshmallow is vegan. It's derived from collagen in animal skin, bones, and connective tissue — commercially, that's almost always pork or beef byproducts, occasionally fish. There is no plant-based version of gelatin; despite the name similarity, "agar agar" and "pectin" are different substances entirely, derived from seaweed and fruit respectively, and either one can replace gelatin in a marshmallow recipe without changing much else about the ingredient list. Carrageenan, another seaweed-derived gelling agent, is the specific ingredient most major vegan marshmallow brands use as their gelatin substitute.
If you're scanning a label and see gelatin anywhere in the ingredient list, the product is not vegan — full stop, regardless of how the rest of the packaging is marketed. If you see carrageenan, agar agar, or pectin doing the gelling job instead, and there's no dairy or egg elsewhere in the list, the product is vegan.
Brand-by-Brand: Which Marshmallows Are Vegan?
- Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows — Not vegan. The ingredient list explicitly includes gelatin (listed as "contains less than 2% of gelatin"), making this the classic non-vegan default most people grew up eating.
- Dandies (Chicago Vegan Foods) — Vegan. Built on tapioca syrup, cane sugar, tapioca starch, and carrageenan instead of gelatin. Widely regarded as the most mainstream, widely available vegan marshmallow brand, sold at most major grocery chains and online.
- Sweet & Sara — Vegan. A smaller-batch brand that also uses a plant-based gelling system rather than gelatin; sold online and in natural food stores, with flavored varieties beyond plain vanilla.
- Trader Joe's Marshmallows (standard and mini) — Vegan. Trader Joe's reformulated its house-brand marshmallow line to remove gelatin and switch to a plant-based gelling agent, meaning the marshmallows, mini marshmallows, and peppermint mini marshmallows sold under the Trader Joe's label no longer require the "vegan marshmallow" search that used to send people to specialty stores. As always with any store brand, it's worth a quick label check each time you buy, since formulations can and do change.
- Campfire, Kraft-owned regional brands, and most other supermarket marshmallow brands — Not vegan. The large legacy marshmallow brands that dominate the baking aisle overwhelmingly still use gelatin as their default gelling agent.
The pattern: dedicated "vegan" or plant-based brands (Dandies, Sweet & Sara) and a handful of reformulated store brands (Trader Joe's) are safe bets. Legacy national brands in the standard baking aisle are still gelatin-based unless the package explicitly says otherwise.
How to Check a Marshmallow Label Yourself
Flip the bag over and scan the ingredient list for one specific word: gelatin. It's usually a short list — corn syrup or tapioca syrup, sugar, water, starch, a gelling agent, and flavoring — so it only takes a few seconds to spot. If gelatin isn't listed and you instead see carrageenan, agar agar, or pectin, the product is vegan as far as the gelling agent goes. Also check for "confectioner's glaze" or shellac-derived coatings on any specialty or holiday-shaped marshmallows, since those are occasionally used for a glossy finish and are derived from insect secretions, not plants. When packaging explicitly says "vegan" on the front, that claim is generally reliable and saves you the ingredient-list search entirely — but when it doesn't, don't assume from "fat-free" or "gluten-free" claims nearby, since neither of those has anything to do with gelatin. If you're ever unsure about a specific bag in front of you, run the ingredient list through the spvegan.com ingredient checker before buying.
Vegan Marshmallow Uses: S'mores, Hot Chocolate, and Baking
Functionally, vegan marshmallows perform close to identically to gelatin-based ones in the situations people actually use them for. Dandies and Sweet & Sara both roast over a flame for s'mores, melt into hot chocolate, and can be used in classic stovetop rice cereal treats using the same 1:1 swap as a traditional recipe. The texture difference is subtle rather than dramatic — carrageenan-based marshmallows tend to hold their shape slightly longer under direct heat before they start to droop and caramelize, which some people who grew up on gelatin marshmallows notice on close comparison, but it's not a difference most casual s'mores eaters would flag unprompted.
Vegan marshmallow cream (the jarred, spreadable version used in fudge and fluffernutter sandwiches) is a newer addition to the category and less universally available than bagged marshmallows, so expect to shop online or at a well-stocked natural foods store rather than finding it at every supermarket.
Nutrition: Vegan vs. Regular Marshmallows
| Brand | Serving Size | Calories | Sugar | Gelatin? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kraft Jet-Puffed (regular) | ~5 pieces (30g) | ~100 | ~17g | Yes — not vegan |
| Dandies | ~5 pieces (30g) | ~100 | ~17g | No — vegan |
| Sweet & Sara | ~2-3 pieces (30g) | ~90-100 | ~15-17g | No — vegan |
| Trader Joe's Marshmallows | ~5 pieces (30g) | ~100 | ~17g | No — vegan |
Nutritionally, vegan and traditional marshmallows are nearly identical — this is a sugar-and-starch product either way, and swapping gelatin for carrageenan doesn't meaningfully change the calorie or sugar count. The only real nutritional distinction some vegan brands make is dropping corn syrup in favor of tapioca or brown rice syrup, which doesn't change the sugar content but does appeal to shoppers avoiding corn syrup specifically for reasons unrelated to veganism.
Other Candy With the Same Gelatin Problem
Marshmallows aren't the only sweet where gelatin hides in plain sight. Gummy bears, fruit snacks, some jelly beans, marshmallow-based candy like Peeps, and traditional Jell-O all rely on the same animal-derived gelling agent for the same structural reason — it sets a sugar-and-water base into something chewy without needing to bake or freeze it. If you've already learned to check marshmallow labels for gelatin, that same one-word scan applies directly to the rest of the candy aisle, and the same substitute ingredients — pectin, agar agar, and carrageenan — show up as the plant-based fix across nearly all of these categories. Worth noting: not every gummy candy uses gelatin specifically for texture reasons — some brands choose pectin purely for cost or supply-chain reasons and happen to be accidentally vegan, which is why reading the label case by case still beats assuming based on the candy type.
A Quick Note on Homemade Vegan Marshmallows
If you can't find a vegan marshmallow brand locally, marshmallows are one of the more approachable vegan swaps to make at home. Recipes typically whip aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas) with sugar and a stabilizer like agar agar into stiff peaks, then set the mixture in a pan before cutting it into squares — no gelatin, dairy, or eggs required at any step. The texture takes some practice to nail, since aquafaba behaves differently than the whipped egg-white or gelatin foams most marshmallow recipes were originally built around, but it's a realistic weekend project rather than something that requires specialty equipment.
Bottom Line
Most marshmallows sold in the standard grocery aisle are not vegan because of gelatin, a gelling agent derived from animal collagen that's easy to miss since it's usually listed in small quantity partway down the ingredient panel. The fix is straightforward once you know what to look for: check for gelatin specifically, favor brands like Dandies and Sweet & Sara that are built around carrageenan or agar agar instead, and remember that a handful of store brands — Trader Joe's among them — have quietly reformulated to remove gelatin entirely. None of this requires giving up s'mores, hot chocolate, or fluff sandwiches; it just requires flipping the bag over once before you buy it.
