Are Nutter Butters Vegan? All Varieties Evaluated!

Nutter Butter is an American biscuit brand, first produced in 1969 and currently owned by Nabisco. It is claimed to be the USA’s best-selling peanut butter sandwich cookie with around a billion eaten anually according to Wikipedia. Over the years there has been some confusion online to the vegan-friendliness of Nutter Butter cookies. This article seeks to answer the question “Are Nutter Butters Vegan?” with relation to all flavors and varieties of the cookies.

A full vegan-friendly analysis of Nutter Butters can be found in the following sections.

Controversial Vegan Ingredients

Before we start our vegan analysis, we would like to make note of the controversial ingredients that are assumed to be vegan in this analysis. Even though we consider them to be vegan, we will still highlight these ingredients if they appear in any posted ingredient lists. These controversial ingredients include:

Sugar

In almost all candy products, one of the first few ingredients is Sugar. Sugar is a controversial product in the vegan community because refined cane sugar is processed with bone char to achieve the pure white color. The sugar itself does not contain any bone char particles, but is not vegan due to the processing methods used. Since the type of sugar is typically not stated, it is assumed to be vegan in this analysis. If you choose to avoid non-vegan sugars than all of the products in this analysis should be avoided. A full rundown on if sugar is vegan can be found in our article titled “Is Your Sugar Vegan? Lets Find Out!“

Palm Oil and Palm Fat

Palm oil is a controversial vegan ingredient not because it is animal-derived, but because the cultivation of palm oil has devastating environmental impacts and harms many animals. You can learn more about palm oil in our article titled “Is Palm Oil Vegan?“

Natural and Artificial Flavorings

Natural flavors can come from both animal or plant sources, but the natural flavors in candies are typically from plant sources. Those natural flavors from animal-origin will be highlighted if known.

Colors

Some food colors are controversial in the vegan community. This is because food colors are often tested on animals. In this article we assume all food colors are vegan, unless the color itself is from an animal or insect origin (e.g. Carmine).

Traditional Nutter Butter

Nutter Butter Ingredients

Unbleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate {Vitamin B1}, Riboflavin {Vitamin B2}, Folic Acid), Sugar, Peanut Butter (Peanuts, Corn Syrup Solids, Hydrogenated Rapeseed And/Or Cottonseed And/Or Soybean Oils, Salt, Peanut Oil), Canola Oil, Whole Grain Wheat Flour, Palm Oil, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Salt, Leavening (Baking Soda, Calcium Phosphate), Cornstarch, Soy Lecithin, Artificial Flavor. [Source]

Are Nutter Butters Vegan?

Yes, Nutter Butters are vegan! All of the ingredients listed are plant based and only ones that may cause some concerns with vegans are the controversial ingredients discussed earlier.

Nutter Butter Bites

Nutter Butter Bites Ingredients

Unbleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate {Vitamin B1}, Riboflavin {Vitamin B2}, Folic Acid), Sugar, Peanut Butter (Peanuts, Corn Syrup Solids, Hydrogenated Rapeseed And/Or Cottonseed And/Or Soybean Oils, Salt, Peanut Oil), High Fructose Corn Syrup, Canola Oil, Palm Oil, Whole Grain Wheat Flour, Salt, Leavening (Baking Soda And/Or Calcium Phosphate), Cornstarch, Soy Lecithin, Artificial Flavor. [Source]

Are Nutter Butter Bites Vegan?

Nutter Butter Bites are also vegan! It appears they have the exact same ingredients as traditional Nutter Butters and just come in a different shape and size. As with traditional Nutter Butters, the only ingredients that may cause some concerns with vegans are the controversial ingredients discussed earlier. Peta has confirmed Nutter Butter Bites to be vegan as well.

Fudge Covered Nutter Butter

Fudge Covered Nutter Butter Ingredients

Sugar, Unbleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate {Vitamin B1}, Riboflavin {Vitamin B2}, Folic Acid), Peanut Butter (Peanuts, Corn Syrup Solids, Hydrogenated Rapeseed And/Or Cottonseed And/Or Soybean Oils, Salt, Peanut Oil), Palm Kernel Oil, Palm Oil, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Whole Grain Wheat Flour, Cocoa (Processed With Alkali), Nonfat Milk, Cocoa, Salt, Soy Lecithin, Cornstarch, Leavening (Baking Soda, Calcium Phosphate), Artificial Flavor, Natural Flavor. [Source]

Are Fudge Covered Nutter Butters Vegan?

Unfortunately, Fudge Covered Nutter Butters are NOT vegan. The fudge that is used to coat them contains nonfat Milk.

Nutter Butter Creme Patties (Wafers)

Nutter Butter Cream Patties Ingredients

Unbleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate {Vitamin B1}, Riboflavin {Vitamin B2}, Folic Acid), Peanut Butter (Peanuts, Hydrogenated Rapeseed And/Or Cottonseed And/Or Soybean Oils, Salt, Peanut Oil), Sugar, Palm Oil, Dextrose, Cornstarch, Salt, Soy Lecithin, Baking Soda. [Source]

Are Nutter Butter Creme Patties Vegan?

Yes! Nutter Butters Creme Patties are vegan as well! As with the other Nutter Butters products, the only ingredients may cause some concerns with vegans are the controversial ingredients discussed earlier.

Nutter Butter Cereal

Nutter Butter Cereal Ingredients

Corn Flour, Sugar, Peanut Butter (Peanuts, Dextrose, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Cottonseed, Soybean, Canola), Salt), Dextrose, Whole Grain Oat Flour, Canola Oil, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Yellow 6, BHT Added To Preserve Freshness. [Source]

Is Nutter Butter Cereal Vegan?

Nutter Butter Cereal is vegan! The only ingredients that may cause some concerns with vegans are the controversial ingredients discussed earlier.

Bonus: Little Debbies Nutty Bars

Since the Little Debbie Nutty Bars are often confused with Nutter Butters, we have chosen to add these to the analysis. Below is the ingredients and vegan assessment of Nutty Bars.

Nutty Bars Ingredients

Dextrose, Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Riboflavin [Vitamin B2], Folic Acid), Peanut Butter, Sugar, Palm and Soybean Oils With TBHQ And Citric Acid To Protect Flavor, Palm And Palm Kernel Oil, Water. Contains 2% Or Less Of Each Of The Following: Soy Flour, Cocoa, Soybean Oil, Salt, Corn Starch, Mono- And Diglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Baking Soda, Citric Acid, Artificial Flavor, Whey (Milk), Egg Whites. [Source]

Are Little Debbies Nutty Bars Vegan?

Little Debbie’s Nutty Buddy peanut butter bars are NOT vegan. They contain both milk-based Whey and Egg Whites in their ingredients.

Nutter Butter FAQs

Are Nutter Butters Gluten Free?

None of the Nutter Butter products are gluten-free. They all include gluten containing wheat flour in their ingredients.

Are Nutter Butters Dairy Free?

All of the Nutter Butter products listed in this article except the Fudge Covered (and Nutty Bars) contain no dairy-based ingredients. Therefore, regular Nutter Butters are dairy-free.

Summary

All of the traditional Nutter Butter products (Regular, Bites, Creme Patties, and Cereal) are vegan friendly! The only non-vegan Nutter Product we could find was the Fudge Covered Nutter Butters. Little Debbies Nutty Bars were also not vegan.

If you liked this article, you can read about other vegan snack options here.