Lays has been one of the leading potato chip brands in the United States for decades, with an impressive 1.7 billion U.S. dollars worth of sales in 2017, accounting for roughly 30% of the potato chip market.
Given their popularity among consumers, it’s only natural for you to be wanting to know whether or not these potato chips are vegan.
However, as you probably suspect, the answer varies based on the specific flavor you purchase. In other words, some flavors are vegan while others may contain animal ingredients.
After carefully analyzing each flavor available on Lay’s official website, I came across a bunch of flavors that do not contain ANY animal ingredients, which include:
- LAY’s Classic Potato Chips
- LAY’s BBQ Potato Chips
- LAY’s Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips
- LAY’s Limón Potato Chips
- LAY’s Dill Pickle Potato Chips
- LAY’s Chesapeake Bay Crab Spice Potato Chips
- LAY’s Lightly Salted Potato Chips
- LAY’s Lightly Salted BBQ Potato Chips
- LAY’s Simple Sea Salt Thick Cut Potato Chips
- LAY’s Simply BBQ Thick Cut Potato Chips
- LAY’s Baked Original Potato Crisps
- LAY’s Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chips
- LAY’s Kettle Cooked Reduced Fat Original Potato Chips
- LAY’s Kettle Cooked Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper Potato Chips
- LAY’s Poppables Sea Salt Potato Snacks
- LAY’s Stax Original Potato Crisps
- LAY’s Wavy Original Potato Chips
- LAY’s Wavy Sea Salt & Pepper Potato Chips
- LAY’s Wavy Reduced Fat Orignal Potato Chips
- LAY’s Wavy Lightly Salted Potato Chips
In this article, I’m going to list the ingredients that each LAY’s potato chip contains, and I’m also going to mention some of the questionable ingredients that may be present in some of the vegan flavors, and why that may derange some vegans from purchasing certain flavors.
Vegan Lays
LAY’s Classic Potato Chips
The Lay’s Originals contain the following ingredients:
LAY’s BBQ Potato Chips
To my surprise, Lay’s BBQ potato chips are also vegan.
Here are the ingredients I’ve taken from LAY’s official website:
- Potatoes
- Vegetable Oil (Sunflower, Corn, and/or Canola Oil)
- Sugar
- Dextrose
- Salt
- Maltodextrin [Made From Corn]
- Molasses
- Torula Yeast
- Onion Powder
- Spices
- Tomato Powder
- Paprika
- Natural Flavors
- Corn Starch
- Caramel Color
- Yeast Extract
- Paprika Extract
- Garlic Powder
- Mustard Seed Oil
As you can see, there are no animal ingredients, but let me remind you of the fact that certain ingredients are considered questionable according to some vegans. Ingredients like sugar and natural flavors are often the motive of controversy within the community, for the reasons I’ll explain later in this blog post.
LAY’s Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips
The salt & vinegar flavored Lay’s contain the following ingredients:
- Potatoes
- Vegetable Oil (Sunflower, Corn and/or Canola Oil)
- Maltodextrin [Made From Corn]
- Natural Flavors
- Salt
- Malic Acid
- Vinegar
LAY’s Limón Potato Chips
The lemon-flavored Lay’s are made with the following ingredients:
- Potatoes
- Vegetable Oil (Sunflower, Corn, and/or Canola Oil)
- Maltodextrin [Made From Corn]
- Salt
- Citric Acid
- Sugar
- Natural Flavors [Including Natural Lime Flavor]
LAY’s Dill Pickle Potato Chips
Not many dill pickle-flavored chips are vegan, but it turns out that Lay’s has managed to pull it off. Not sure if it was done accidentally, but these chips don’t have animal ingredients.
Here are the ingredients present in these Lays:
LAY’s Chesapeake Bay Crab Spice Potato Chips
With the word “crab” in the name, I would never think that this flavor could be vegan, but apparently, this particular flavor doesn’t contain any crab, nor any other animal ingredients.
Here are the ingredients present in the recipe:
LAY’s Lightly Salted Potato Chips
These are basically the original Lay’s but with 50% less sodium.
The ingredients, however, are pretty much the same:
LAY’s Lightly Salted BBQ Potato Chips
The same can be said for these lightly salted BBQ chips, as they also contain 50% less sodium.
Here are the ingredients:
- Potatoes
- Vegetable Oil (Sunflower, Corn, and/or Canola Oil)
- Sugar
- Dextrose
- Maltodextrin [Made From Corn]
- Salt
- Molasses
- Torula Yeast
- Onion Powder
- Natural Flavors
- Spices
- Tomato Powder
- Corn Starch
- Caramel Color
- Yeast Extract
- Paprika Extract
- Garlic Powder
LAY’s Simply Sea Salt Thick Cut Potato Chips
With the same taste as the Original Lay’s but with a thick cut.
The Simply sea salted Lay’s contain simple ingredients:
LAY’s Simply BBQ Thick Cut Potato Chips
Akin to the original BBQ flavored chips, the Simply BBQ Lay’s are vegan.
Here are the ingredients:
- Potatoes
- Expeller-Pressed Sunflower Oil
- Sugar
- Salt
- Organic Maltodextrin (Made from Corn)
- Organic Dextrose
- Maltodextrin (Made from Rice)
- Onion Powder
- Organic Paprika
- Organic Tomato Powder
- Organic Molasses
- Spices
- Natural Flavors
- Organic Sunflower Oil
- Torula Yeast
- Yeast Extract
- Garlic Powder
LAY’s Baked Original Potato Crisps
Lay’s Baked crisps contain 65% less fat than regular potato chips, making them a healthier choice alternative to common potato chips.
These are the ingredients:
LAY’s Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chips
The Original Kettle Cooked Lay’s contain the following ingredients:
- Potatoes
- Vegetable Oil (Corn, Canola, and/or Sunflower Oil)
- Sea Salt
LAY’s Kettle Cooked Reduced Fat Original Potato Chips
The Original Kettle Cooked Lays with 40% less fat contain the following ingredients:
LAY’s Kettle Cooked Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper Potato Chips
The sea salt & cracked pepper flavored Kettle Cooked Lays contain the following ingredients:
LAY’s Poppables Sea Salt Potato Snacks
Lay’s came up with perfectly poppable crispy potato bites, and among the five different flavors available, only one is made without animal ingredients.
Here are the ingredients in the sea salt-flavored Poppables:
LAY’s Stax Original Potato Crisps
If you love the taste and crispiness of Pringles, you’ll also love Lay’s Stax potato crisps. However, among 10 different flavors, only the Original potato crisps are vegan.
Here are the ingredients:
LAY’s Wavy Original Potato Chips
The Original Wavy Lay’s are plain potato chips but are cut in a way that’s very similar to Ruffles.
Here are the ingredients used in this recipe:
LAY’s Wavy Sea Salt & Pepper Potato Chips
The Wavy sea salt & pepper flavored Lay’s contain the following ingredients:
LAY’s Wavy Reduced Fat Orignal Potato Chips
The Wavy Original Lay’s with reduced-fat are made using the following ingredients:
LAY’s Wavy Lightly Salted Potato Chips
Much like the Original Wavy Lay’s but with 50% less sodium.
Here are the ingredients present in the recipe:
Questionable Ingredients
Throughout this post, I’ve bolded ingredients often considered questionable by some members of the vegan community based on three potential factors:
- Actual source
- Processing
- Indirect impact on animal suffering
For instance, I’ve noticed that a lot of the vegan flavored Lay’s contained a few of these ingredients, more specifically sugar and natural flavors.
Sugar
If the product you’re purchasing contains sugar derived from sugarcane, it’s possible that the sugar may not be vegan because bone char might’ve been used during the refinement process.
Bone char is a charcoal-like powder obtained by boiling and incinerating the bones of cattle. Some sugar suppliers use bone char to process, filter, and bleach cane sugar to remove inorganic impurities.
The good news is that not all sugar suppliers use bone char since alternatives like activated carbon and ion-exchange resins also can be used to achieve the same result. I invite you to read my blog post on refined sugar for more detailed information on this subject.
Natural Flavors
Most natural flavors are actually derived from a plant-based source but they can also be derived from animal sources. Unless there’s a major allergen included, you won’t find which source has been used.
I’ve written a more in-depth post on natural flavors, so feel free to check it out if you’re interested.
Lastly, if you’re interested in knowing which sources are actually being used to create these “natural flavors”, and if you want to know whether or not Lay’s contain sugar filtered using bone char, my ultimate suggestion would be for you to contact Frito-Lay which is essentially Lay’s parent company.
Conclusion
Fortunately, Lay’s has a lot of vegan-friendly chips.
In fact, we’ve covered 20 different varieties of potato chips that are vegan, and while the majority may be old plain potato chips with distinctive shapes, you’ll be surprised to know that there are uniquely flavored Lay’s that are vegan-friendly.
If you feel like this blog post has been helpful in any way, please share it with friends or family that may also find it useful. Thank you for reading!
