Ingredient
Vegan sweets
Why so many sweets are not vegetarian.
The story
Three things commonly stop a sweet being vegan. Gelatine, made from animal collagen. Carmine, the red colour E120, made from cochineal insects. And beeswax or shellac used as a glaze, shellac being a resin secreted by an insect. Starch and pectin replace gelatine, plant concentrates replace carmine, and carnauba wax, from a Brazilian palm, replaces the animal glazes. Plenty of traditional British sweets were vegan by accident long before anyone asked, because sugar and flavouring was all anyone could afford to put in them.
