I remember back as a kid having these quite often, arguably being one of the only snacks I actually liked as a kid. I’m not, and never was big on snacks, but these always had a place in my life. Until I went vegan.
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For whatever reason Pepperidge Farms puts milk in every single variety of Goldfish they sell.
As a result no Goldfish are Vegan.
I expected the cheddar cheese ones to not be vegan, but the originals too? Then their new strange flavors like Pretzel? They all have milk!
Rarely do I get annoyed, but this really annoys the heck out of me. It’s not that the milk is an essential ingredient, as it’s easily replaced, but it’s <2% of the ingredients in all goldfish, meaning you could likely simply omit it and they’d turn out just the same.
Here is the whole list of the ingredients: Enriched Wheat Flour (Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vegetable Oils (Canola, Sunflower and/or Soybean), Salt, Contains 2% or Less of: Nonfat Milk, Yeast, Sugar, Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate, Paprika, Spices, Celery, Onion Powder.
Is there a vegan alternative?
That’s exactly like goldfish, especially my favorite (plain) variety?
Nothing quite compares that I’ve been able to find or try. Maybe one day they stop adding milk into them, but till then we’re out of luck.
The best replacement, at least if you liked the cheddar ones, would be these Earth Balance cheese-it type things. While they’re good in my opinion they aren’t a replacement so much as they are a substitute. They just aren’t the Goldfish I liked, the plain ones.
But hey, if you like the cheddar goldfish they’re definitely worth a try.
