We checked 269 popular products. Only 24% are clearly vegan.

Updated June 20, 2026 · Every verdict sourced and checked against the current label

We went through 269 of the supermarket brands people ask about most, from candy and chips to soda and cereal, and checked each one against its current ingredient list. The headline is bleaker than most people expect: barely a fifth are a clean yes.

Put differently: 76% of these products are either not vegan or come with an asterisk (a non-vegan variety in the lineup, bone-char-refined sugar, undisclosed natural flavors, or a region-specific recipe). The asterisks are the real story, and they are why a flat "yes or no" list lies to you.

The worst and best aisles

Sorted by how many are a clean vegan yes. Candy and cereal are the minefields; the drinks aisle is the safe harbor.

What this means for you

Three takeaways. First, "plant-based-looking" means nothing: 12 of 16 cereals we checked are not vegan, usually from lanolin-derived vitamin D3. Second, the gray area is huge, so a checker that only says yes or no will mislead you. Third, the safe move is to check the specific product, not the brand.

That is exactly what the Is It Vegan database is for, and the ingredient checker handles anything not in it. Our method is public: see how we verify.

Or run your own checks in the database.