Are you trying to find out if Takis are vegan? You’ve come to the right place. We’ve done the investigation so you can be sure to choose Takis that are vegan. Takis are popular for their intense heat, shape, and flavors. It was introduced to the U.S. market in 2006. It's like a rolled version of Doritos that is a bit sweet, sour, and plenty spicy.
What is Takis?
Are you looking for a spicy and robust snack? Takis fits the bill. They are rolled, flauta-style (to me it looks like tight spring rolls) corn tortilla chips made by Barcel. (Part of Grupo Bimbo – they are a Mexican international company that sells food items like white bread, toast bread, black bread, sweet bread, buns, and muffins.) Takis used to be called taquitos. And Taquitos translates to mean “little tacos”
Each bag of Takis contains crispy, crunchy rolled corn tortillas that are seasoned with a variety of bold flavors.
What are the Takis flavors?
Takis come in many different flavors and colors like red, orange, blue, and green. Let's look at some of the flavors they offer.
- Angry Burger, a spicy hamburger and dill pickle flavor (green packaging)
- Authentic Taco, a hot taco flavor (green packaging)
- BBQ Picante, a spicy barbecue flavor (brown packaging)
- Blue Flame, an extreme barbecue flavor (blue packaging)
- Blue Heat (originally named Fuego Azul), a hot chili pepper flavor blue powder (blue packaging)
- Cobra (red packaging)
- Crunchy Fajita, a chicken fajita flavor with a yellowish appearance (green packaging)
- Fuego, a hot chili pepper and lime flavor. It is the spiciest of all varieties, as well as the most popular flavor (purple packaging).
- Guacamole, a spicy snack topped with a style of salsa guacamole (white packaging)
- Lava, a cheese and chipotle flavor (orange packaging)
- Nitro, a habanero chile flavor (black-red packaging)
- Original, a slightly spicy snack (green packaging)
- Outlaw, a spicy barbecue flavor (dark red packaging)
- Party, a flavor of cheese and chile
- Rock, a presentation with flavor of chorizo
- Sal De Mar (formerly “Classic”), a mild snack topped with sea salt
- Salsa Brava, a slightly spicier snack than the original (yellow packaging)
- Scorpion BBQ, a barbecue flavor (brown and purple packaging)
- Titan, a chipotle and lime flavor (dark red packaging)
- Volcano Queso, a habanero cheese flavor (yellow-green and orange packaging)
- Wild, a hot buffalo flavor (sky blue packaging)
- Xplosion, a spicy cheese-flavored chili pepper variety (orange packaging)
- Xtra Hot, a hot flavor similar to Fuego, but less spicy (black-purple packaging)
- Zombie, habanero, and cucumber flavor (black-green packaging)
Source: Wikipedia Takis
Ingredients to look out for in Takis that are not vegan
Of course, as vegans we know to look out in the ingredients for any red flags like animal-derived flavorings, milk, cheese products, and honey but with processed foods and snacks we've found in our investigation with sour patch kids it could be a bit more complicated than that. Let's take a close look at some of the takis ingredients that don't immediately jump out as non-vegan friendly.
Artificial Colors And Flavors In Takis
Sometimes artificial colors and artificial flavors are made in labs and tested on animals. Most vegans are strictly against animal cruelty. Some artificial colors like red dye are made by crushing cochineal bugs into a powder and mixing them with water. This type of dye is used widely in the food industry in many different candies and yogurts. It's usually listed as camine or carminic acid. This doesn't mean all colors are made this way. The problem is that many artificial colors are tested on animals.
Artificial colors like Red 40, Yellow 5 and 6, and Blue 1 are made from petroleum, which is usually tested on animals. Most dyes are fed to animal testers to monitor their potential health issues. These health issues may show up in the form of tumors. If the animal does not pass away from the side effects of testing, they are usually euthanized after testing products. Tests done on animals using Allura red have shown neurotoxicity.
Some vegans do not mind animal testing. Many vegans consume products with artificial colors or flavors without a second thought. Other vegans are strict about consuming or using any products tested on animals.
Sugars In Takis
Sugar is either made from sugar beets or sugarcane. These are both naturally-derived ways of creating sugar. The refining process varies, even though the taste and texture are similar. Sugar made from beets is taken from the beets using a diffuser. Additives are mixed with this fluid to crystallize the sugar. Cane sugar is processed, bleached, and filtered by using bone char. Bone char gives the perfect white color. Bone char or carbon is made from the bones of cattle. It's made by heating animal bones at high temperatures then reducing it to carbon. The bone char particles do not usually make their way into your sugar.
Bone char is used to filter and turn cane sugar white, but that does not mean that all cane sugar is refined with it. There are many companies that use granular carbon to filter their cane sugar. Granular carbon is not made from animal products. The issue is that you aren't going to find a description on the side of your candy as to exactly how its cane sugar was filtered. As many snack makers could have multiple suppliers it is difficult to say if the sugars used in Takis have been filtered using bone char.
Good News! Our team reached out to Takis USA (@takisusa) They got back to us and confirmed bone char is NOT used to filter their sugar and Takis use beets or sugar cane for their sugar source.
Palm Oils In Takis
Palm oil does not contain any animal products but many vegans stay away from palm oil because unsustainable palm oil production endangers animals and deforestation. World Wild Life Organization cited animals like orangutans, elephants, rhinoceros, and tigers are impacted by unsustainable palm oil production.
Now that we know the facts about some ingredients that could make Takis not vegan-friendly let's look at the ingredients for each flavor to see which Takis are actually vegan.
Takis Flavors and Ingredients
Are Fuego Takis Vegan?
Fuego Takis does not have any animal-derived flavorings, milk, cheese products, or honey. But it does include palm oil, Red 40 Lake, and Yellow 6 Lake artificial colors.
Fuego Takis Ingredients: Corn Flour (Processed With Lime), Vegetable Oil (Palm And/Or Soybean And/Or Canola Oil), Seasoning [Salt, Maltodextrin, Citric Acid, Sugar, Monosodium Glutamate, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Onion Powder, Yeast Extract, Red 40 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Sodium Bicarbonate, Soybean Oil, Chili Pepper (Chile), Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Tbhq (Antioxidant)].
Does Takis Fuego have pork in it?
No, there are no pork or pork flavorings in Takis Fuego.
Is Nitro Takis Vegan?
Nitro Takis does not have animal products but contains palm oil, Red 40 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, and Yellow 5 Lake artificial colors.
Nitro Takis Ingredients: Corn Masa Flour (Processes With Lime), Vegetable Oil (Palm And/Or Soybean And/Or Canola And/Or Rice Bran Oil), Maltodextrin, Salt, Citric Acid, Dextrose, Monosodium Glutamate, Sugar, Onion Powder, Artificial Color (Red 40 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, Blue 1 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake) Natural And Artificial Flavors, Gum Arabic, Mannitol.
Is Blue Heat Takis vegan?
Blue Takis does not have any animal-derived flavorings, milk, cheese products, or honey. But it does include palm oil, Red 40 Lake, and Yellow 6 Lake artificial colors.
Blue Heat Takis Ingredients: Corn Flour (Processed With Lime), Vegetable Oil (Palm And/ Or Soybean And/Or Canola Oils), Seasoning [Maltodextrin, Citric Acid, Sugar, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, Hydrolyzed Soybean Protein, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Hydrolyzed Yeast, Soybean Oil, Onion Powder, Blue 1 Lake, Sodium Bicarbonate, Chili Pepper (Chile), Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Tbhq (Antioxidant)].
Is Xplosion Takis Vegan?
Xplosion Takis have cheese powder, whey and sodium caseinate so they are not vegan.
Xplosion Takis Ingredients: Corn Masa Flour ( Processed , with : Lime ) , Soybean and/or Palm and/or Canola Oil , Maltodextrin , Sugar , Iodized Salt , Potassium Chloride , Citric Acid , Natural And Artificial Flavor , Whey ( Milk ) , Monosodium Glutamate , Soy Protein , Cheese powder , Vegetable Shortening ( Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil , Corn Syrup , Sodium Caseinate , Mono and Diglycerides ) , Artificial Colors ( Yellow 6 Lake and Yellow 5 Lake ) , Onion Powder , Chili Pepper , Disodium Inosinate and Guanylate , Antioxidant ( TBHQ ) .
Is Guacamole Takis Vegan?
Guacamole Takis have Milk in them so they are not Vegan.
Guacamole Takis Ingredients: Corn Flour (Processed With Lime), Vegetable Oil (Canola And/Or Palm And/Or Soybean Oil), Seasoning [Maltodextrin, Salt, Canola Oil, Monosodium Glutamate, Onion Powder, Tomato Powder, Citric Acid, Garlic Powder, Food Starch-Modified, Whey Powder (Milk), Acetic Acid, Artificial And Natural Flavors, Spices, Silicon Dioxide, Disodium Guanylate, Disodium Inosinate, Yellow 5 Lake, Mono And Diglycerides, Blue 1 Lake, Red 40 Lake].
Is Wild Takis Vegan?
Takis Wild Spicy Buffalo foreshadowing by its name does have Milk, Butter Milk, and Butter in it so is not Vegan.
Wild Takis Ingredients: Corn Masa Flour (Processed with Lime), Vegetable Oil (Palm and/or Soybean and/or Canola Oil and/or Rice Bran Oil), Seasoning (Maltodextrin, Buttermilk, Salt, Cayenne Pepper Sauce (Aged Cayenne Red Peppers, Vinegar Solids, Salt, Garlic Powder), Monosodium Glutamate, Citric Acid, Modified Corn Starch, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Hydrolyzed Corn Protein, Sugar, Colors ( Red 40 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake), Spices, Vinegar Solids, Chili Pepper (Chile), Whey (Milk), Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Sodium Diacetate, Acetic Acid, Butter).
Is Zombie Takis Vegan?
Zombie Takis does not have any animal-derived flavorings, milk, cheese products, or honey. But it does include palm oil, Red 40 Lake, and Yellow 6 Lake artificial colors.
Zombie Takis Ingredients: Corn Flour (Processed With Lime), Vegetable Oil (Palm And/Or Soybean And/Or Canola Oil), Seasoning [Maltodextrin, Salt, Citric Acid, Dextrose, Monosodium Glutamate, Sugar, Onion Powder, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Yellow 5 Lake, Blue 1 Lake, Yellow 5, Gum Arabic, Mannitol].
Is Salsa Brava Vegan?
Salsa Brava Takis does not have any animal-derived flavorings, milk, cheese products, or honey. But it does include palm oil, Red 40 Lake, and Yellow 6 Lake artificial colors.
Salsa Brava Ingredients: Corn, Palm Oil, Seasoning (salt, maltodextrin, corn flour, monosodium glutamate, sugar, corn oil, red pepper powder, spices, vegetable protein (soybean), Citric Acid, Artificial Flavor, Artificial Colors (FD&C Red 40, FD&C Yellow 6, FD&C Blue 1), Sodium Diacetate, Acetic Acid). Contains 2% or Less of the following antioxidants (TBHQ and/or BHA and BHT) and traces of Lime.
Are Takis bad for you?
Looking at ingredients filled with artificial coloring and flavors they are probably not the healthiest snack you can have.
Takeaway: So… Are Takis Vegan?
All Takis flavors are questionable if they are vegan-friendly because they all contain palm oil and artificial coloring. But for some vegans who may not be concerned about palm oil and artificial colors used in Takis, Salsa Brava, Zombie Takis, Fuego, Nitro, Blue Heat Takis do not contain red-flag ingredients like animal-derived flavoring, cheese or milk products, or honey.
