Love Hearts are manufactured by Swizzels Matlow in the United Kingdom and they are known as Sweet Hearts in the United States. They are hard, tablet-shaped sweets available in a variety of fruit flavors, also featuring short, love-related messages, hence why they’re very popular during Valentine’s Day.
Love Hearts are currently available in six flavors, each one associated with a color:
- White (sherbet-like flavor with slightly tart vanilla flavor)
- Yellow (sherbet-like flavor with lemon aftertaste)
- Green (lime flavor with sherbet-like aftertaste)
- Orange (sweet flavor with a slight orange aftertaste)
- Purple (berry-like flavor with strong aftertaste)
- Red (cherry flavor)
None of the flavors contain animal ingredients, but it’s important to mention that they contain artificial colors and stearic acid, a few brow-raising ingredients among those in the vegan community.
Love Hearts: Ingredients
These are the ingredients present in Love Hearts:
Ingredients: Sugar, Acidity Regulators: Malic Acid, Tartaric Acid; sodium bicarbonate, stearic acid, Modified starch, E470b, Anti-Caking Agent: Magnesium Carbonate; Flavourings, Colours: E100 (turmeric or curcumin), E104 (Quinoline Yellow WS), E110 (Sunset Yellow FCF), E122 (Azorubine), E124 (Ponceau 4R), E129 (Allura Red AC), E132 (indigo carmine), Elderberry] Extract.
Among these ingredients, some are deemed questionable by the vegan community, namely stearic acid, and various artificial colors.
Vegans also point out that sugar may not be vegan because it may be processed with bone char, a granular carbon that is obtained from charring animal bones.
However, in this particular instance, I don’t think that’s applicable because Love Hearts are manufactured in the United Kingdom, where bone char is not used. It would be worrying, however, if they were manufactured in the United States, where the use of bone char is common.
With that being said, let’s look at why stearic acid and artificial colors may not be vegan.
Stearic Acid
According to the Vegetarian Resource Group, stearic acid is used as a binder in foods, and its source can be either animal or plant-based. It can be found in both vegetables and animal oils, animal fats, cascarilla bark extract, and also in synthetic form.
It is used in many products, including butter flavoring, vanilla flavoring, chewing gum, candy, and fruit waxes.
Stearic Acid may not be suitable for vegans, depending on the source, which is why more stringent vegans may opt to avoid products containing stearic acid regardless.
However, Swizzels claims on its official website that Love Hearts are suitable for vegans, which means that the stearic acid has been extracted from a plant-based source.
Artificial Colors
Unfortunately, artificial colors are often a by-product of animal testing as their safety must be secured before they are to be included in products.
Naturally, this is not something vegans agree with, particularly when realizing that testing artificial colors (namely, red #40) is a practice that routinely takes place.
These recent studies from 2017 and 2018 evaluate the genotoxicity and other effects the Allura Red AC (or red #40) may have on mice. Needless to say, vegans are against animal testing, especially when done periodically.
Conclusion
Love Hearts are vegan because the only ingredient that could’ve been derived from animals (stearic acid) actually comes from a vegetable source.
However, I do understand that you may have some reservations when it comes to consuming products with artificial colors as some of these are routinely tested on animals for safety reasons.
