Are marshmallows vegan?
Last checked 2 August 2026
Not vegan.
Standard marshmallows are not. Gelatine — made by boiling animal skin, bone and connective tissue — is the ingredient that gives them their structure. Vegan versions exist and are genuinely good now.
What gelatine is
Gelatine is collagen extracted from animal skin, bone and connective tissue, usually from pigs or cattle. In a marshmallow it is doing real structural work: it traps air, sets the foam, and gives you the springy chew that makes a marshmallow a marshmallow rather than sweetened air.
That is why there is no accidentally-vegan mainstream marshmallow. The gelatine is not an additive that could be left out; it is the mechanism.
What replaces it
Two things, and both work.
Aquafaba — the liquid from a tin of chickpeas. It whips like egg white and sets into a stable foam. It is what most small-batch vegan marshmallows use, and it is the same trick behind vegan meringue.
Carrageenan, from red seaweed, sometimes with agar or soy protein. This is what most commercial vegan marshmallows use, because it behaves consistently at scale.
Both toast. Both melt into hot chocolate. The texture is slightly less elastic, and most people do not notice.
Where else gelatine turns up
If marshmallows caught you out, these will too: most gummy sweets, wine gums, jelly, some low-fat yogurts, marshmallow fluff, some soft-centred chocolates, and a surprising number of vitamin capsules.
The label may say gelatine, gelatin, or just E441.
Reading it quickly
Gelatine has to be declared, so this is one of the easier ones — it appears on the ingredients list under its own name. The trap is not the label. It is assuming a sweet must be fine because there is no obvious dairy in it.
Recipes that use the alternatives
- One-bowl banana bread65 min · serves 8
- Fudgy date brownies40 min · serves 9
- Chewy oat chocolate cookies25 min · serves 12