Are Sour Patch Kids Halal? The US Answer, the UK Flavours and the Halal Version

In the US and Canada, Sour Patch Kids are halal by their ingredients. They contain no gelatin or other animal ingredients: just sugars, corn starch, fruit acids, flavours and colours. They aren’t halal certified.

In the UK, it depends on the flavour. Sour Patch Kids Original, Fruit Mix and Fruit Flavour Gums contain gelatine, which makes them unsuitable for most Muslims. Strawberry, Peach, Blue Raspberry and Strawberry and Watermelon don’t contain gelatine. This guide gives you a UK flavour table, explains the US recipe, and covers the separately made halal version sold in halal shops.

Quick answer

by country

Are Sour Patch Kids halal in the UK?

It depends on the bag. These are the ingredients on Tesco’s listings for Sour Patch Kids sold in the UK:

The UK Original recipe reads: sugar, glucose syrup, water, starch, gelatine, malic acid, concentrated apple juice, colours, calcium citrates, palm oil and flavourings. The gelatine source isn’t named, so most Muslims should avoid it.

The UK Strawberry recipe reads: sugar, invert sugar syrup, glucose syrup, starch, citric and tartaric acids, colours (anthocyanins, curcumin, vegetable carbon), flavouring and sodium hydroxide. It contains nothing from animals.

Quick tip: in the UK, the single flavour bags (Strawberry, Peach, Blue Raspberry, Watermelon) are the gelatine free ones. Read the ingredients on any mixed or “Original” bag.

Are Sour Patch Kids halal in the USA?

Yes, by ingredients. US Sour Patch Kids are made from sugar, invert sugar, corn syrup and modified corn starch, with fumaric, citric, malic and tartaric acids, natural and artificial flavour, and synthetic colours (Yellow 6, Blue 1, Red 40, Yellow 5). There’s no gelatin, so the chewy texture comes from corn starch.

That’s the recipe for Sour Patch Kids Original, Watermelon and Extreme in the US. They aren’t halal certified, and Mondelez, which makes them, doesn’t comment on halal status in the US.

Do Sour Patch Kids use pork gelatin?

Not in the US, where there’s no gelatin. In the UK, Original and Fruit Mix contain gelatine of unnamed source, which could be pork or beef. That’s the reason to avoid them.

Are Sour Patch Kids halal in Canada?

Canadian Sour Patch Kids are made to a recipe similar to the US one, without gelatin. Check the ingredients on the bag, especially for limited editions.

Are Sour Patch Kids halal in Australia?

Some are. Several Sour Patch Kids products in Australia have been listed as halal certified, but not all. Mustakshif, a halal scanning app, lists Sour Patch Kids Layers as not halal. Check for a halal logo on the pack you buy.

Is there a halal version of Sour Patch Kids?

Yes. In Turkey, Mondelez sells Sour Patch Kids under its Kent Jelibon brand, and these packs are sold as halal. They’re imported into the UK and sold in Turkish and halal shops and online, often in 80g and 160g bags. Check for the halal logo on the pack you buy.

What about the other ingredients?

• Invert sugar and sugar: plant sugars. Some people ask about bone char used to whiten cane sugar in the US. Bone char is a filter and doesn’t end up in the sugar, so most scholars and certifiers don’t consider it an issue.
• Tartaric acid: often made from by products of wine making, but it’s a separate chemical, not alcohol. Most certifiers accept it.
• Flavourings: may be carried in tiny amounts of ethanol. Most scholars accept this, because it can’t intoxicate and dissolves completely.
• Colours: synthetic in the US, plant based in the UK. None of the products we checked contain carmine (E120).

Are Sour Patch Kids vegan?

In the US, yes, by ingredients. In the UK, Strawberry, Peach, Blue Raspberry and Watermelon are vegan by ingredients, while Original and Fruit Mix aren’t, because of the gelatine.

A short history of Sour Patch Kids

Sour Patch Kids began in Canada in the early 1970s as Mars Men, created at Jaret International and made by the Allen Candy Company in Hamilton, Ontario. They were renamed Sour Patch Kids in the mid 1980s and were once sold as Maynards Sour Patch Kids in the UK. Mondelez International owns the brand today.