Quick answer: yes, most BUBS products are vegan. Most Swedish gummy candy in general is vegan, because Swedish confectionery culture defaulted to pectin and starch decades ago — partly for texture, partly for shelf stability. Here's the complete guide for anyone trying to navigate the Swedish candy aisle without animal-derived ingredients.
The short answer on BUBS
The vast majority of the BUBS gummy lineup — including Cool Cola Skulls, Sour Skulls, Raspberry Skulls, Passion-Pineapple Skulls, Foam Skulls, Banana Bubs, and most of the standard ovals — is gelatin-free. They're made with pectin and starch, with natural and nature-identical flavourings, and they're suitable for vegans and vegetarians.
A few exceptions exist — limited-edition flavours, some collaboration products, and certain regional variants sometimes contain non-vegan ingredients. Always check the back of the bag if it's a flavour you haven't seen before. The standard year-round lineup is reliably vegan.
Why Swedish gummies tend to be vegan by default
Sweden's confectionery industry leaned into pectin and starch as gelling agents long before vegan candy was a marketing category. The reasons were practical: pectin gives a cleaner fruit-flavour profile, starch produces the foam-and-chew texture that defines a lot of Swedish candy, and both ingredients are cheaper and more stable than gelatin at scale.
The accidental result is that a huge percentage of the Swedish gummy catalogue is suitable for vegans without ever having been engineered for them. That's quietly one of the strongest cases for Swedish candy if you're vegan and bored of the limited US options.
Brand-by-brand summary
- BUBS — vast majority of the lineup is vegan. Pectin/starch base. Foam and chew products almost always vegan.
- Malaco — mixed. Most of the gummy fish and Gott & Blandat are vegetarian (no gelatin) but contain dairy in some chews. Read each bag.
- Ahlgrens Bilar — contains starch base; vegetarian but not strictly vegan due to dairy in the marshmallow flavouring.
- Cloetta — vegetarian options across most lineups; chocolate products contain dairy by default.
- Marabou — milk chocolate, so not vegan. Standard caveat for milk chocolate brands.
- Fazer — mixed. The Fazer Blue is milk chocolate (not vegan). Salmiakki products are usually vegan.
- Katjes — fully vegan brand. Their entire lineup is gelatin-free and they market it heavily.
Specific products to start with
If you're building a vegan Swedish candy mix, these are the reliable picks:
- BUBS Cool Cola Skulls — vegan, the gateway product.
- BUBS Sour Skulls — vegan, the famous sour ones.
- BUBS Raspberry Foam Skulls — vegan, the heritage SKU.
- Original Malaco Pastellfiskar (Swedish Fish) — vegetarian, check current label for vegan-strict.
- Sour Bolt — vegan-friendly sour straws.
- Octopus Sour — vegan, fruit-forward sour gummies.
- Most Cloetta hard candies and lozenges — vegan unless flavoured with honey.
“Swedish candy was vegan-friendly before vegan candy was a marketing category. The pectin-and-starch base predates the demand.”
What to watch out for
Things to check on any specific bag if you're strictly vegan: gelatin (rare in Swedish gummies, but present in some collaborations), shellac (used as a coating on some hard candies), confectioner's glaze, beeswax (less common but appears occasionally), dairy ingredients in chews, honey in some traditional licorice products.
If a product label is in Swedish and you're unsure, the words to flag are gelatin (gelatin), shellac (shellack), bivax (beeswax), honung (honey), and any mention of mjölk (milk) for strict vegans.
Why this matters
Vegan candy in the US tends to be either limited (small specialty brands), expensive (high-end chocolate bars), or weird (the kind of vegan gummy that doesn't quite hit the texture). Swedish vegan-friendly candy is none of those — it's the default product, the texture is excellent, and the prices are reasonable.
Our build-your-mix tool lets you assemble a fully vegan bag in 100-gram increments. Look for the "vegan" tag on each item — we mark them clearly so you can build without checking ingredient lists. Or browse the full catalogue and filter by tag.
We ship every product direct from Sweden, with current ingredient lists on every bag. 75,000+ customers across 20+ countries, including a steadily growing vegan slice of that base.