Are Wheat Thins Vegan? (List of Vegan Flavors)

Wheat Thins is a popular brand of baked whole grain crackers distributed in the US and Canada by Nabisco. They’ve been around since the 1940’s so a lot of vegans grew up eating them and want to know if they can continue to do so after switching to a 100% plant-based diet.

Are they vegan? Original Wheat Thins are vegan, as they only contain whole grain flour, canola oil, sugar, salt, cornstarch, malt syrup, refiner’s syrup, leaveners, and preservatives. All of which are vegan.¹ As for the flavored variety, some qualify as vegan and others contain milk products and/or honey.

What we’ll do here is go over a list of both vegan and non-vegan flavors along with an analysis of the ingredients.

Vegan Wheat Thins

The Original

Again, these simply contain:¹

Whole Grain Wheat Flour
Canola Oil
Sugar
Cornstarch
Malt Syrup
Salt
Refiner’s Syrup
Leavening agents
BHT (for freshness)

The BHT is actually added to the packaging material, but it’s listed in the ingredients.

BHT is short for butylated hydroxytoluene or dibutyl hydroxytoluene.²

It’s a derivative of phenol, so it has antioxidant properties and is thus used as a preservative.³

BHT is considered vegan because it’s made industrially via chemical synthesis using non-animal-derived precursors.⁴

The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) considers it to be a vegan-friendly ingredient.⁵

Three similar products that I’ll also include here is the Hint of Sea Salt, Multigrain, and Wheat Thins BIG. They contain the same ingredients. The latter is bigger and the former two contain the original ingredients plus sea salt and multigrain flour, respectively.^6-8

So, they’re also vegan.

Zesty Salsa

This is a popular flavor that was supposedly discontinued for a while but has since resurfaced.

It contains:⁹

Whole Grain Wheat Flour
Soybean Oil
Sugar, Salt
Malt Syrup (from Corn And Barley), Refiner’s Syrup*
Cornstarch
Dried Green Bell Peppers
Leavening (Calcium Phosphate And/or Baking Soda)
Spices (Includes Parsley), Natural Flavor
Onion and Garlic Powders
Citric Acid, Distilled Vinegar
Vegetable Color (Annatto Extract, Turmeric Oleoresin)

*Refiner’s syrup is an ingredient that you don’t run across too often. But, folks do encounter it from time to time when scanning labels for vegan friendliness.

Refiner’s syrup is also called golden syrup or light treacle.^10,11

It’s a thick amber-colored form of what’s known as invert sugar. It’s simply a byproduct of the process in which sugar cane and sugar beet juice are refined into sugar.¹⁰

It can also be produced by treating a sugar solution with acid.

So, it’s 100% plant-based and thus vegan.

Sundried Tomato Basil

Ingredients for these include:¹²

Whole Grain Wheat Flour
Soybean Oil
Sugar, Invert Sugar, Salt
Cornstarch, Yeast Extract
Malt Syrup (from Corn and Barley)
Leavening (Calcium Phosphate and/or Baking Soda)
Tomato Powder, Sundried Tomato Powder
Garlic and Onion Powders
Spices (Including Basil)
Dried Red and Green Bell Peppers
Vegetable Color (Paprika, Annatto Extract, Turmeric Oleoresin, Paprika Extract)
Caramel Color*
Natural Flavor
Sulfur Dioxide and/or Sodium Metabisulphite (for Color Retention)

*Caramel color is not to be confused with actual caramel. Real caramel (the confection) is derived from heating milk which causes lactose (the simple sugar in milk) to undergo browning via the Maillard reaction which results in the flavor and aroma characteristic of caramel.

Caramel color is produced via the same reaction, but using other simple sugars like glucose, fructose, and vegan-friendly sugary substances like malt syrup, molasses, and invert sugar.¹³

Hence, caramel color is considered suitable for vegans.

Spicy Buffalo

These contain:¹⁴

Whole Grain Wheat Flour
Soybean Oil
Sugar, Salt
Cornstarch, Maltodextrin*
Malt Syrup, Refiner’s Syrup
Cayenne Pepper Sauce
Leaveners
Tomato and Garlic Powders
Citric Acid, Yeast Extract
Natural Flavor, Spices
Vegetable Color
BHT

I sometimes get asked if Maltodextrin is vegan. Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide made up of glucose chains.¹⁵

It is produced via partial hydrolysis of vegetable starch.¹⁶

Starch is only found in plants (animal tissue contains glycogen), so maltodextrin is always considered vegan.

Non-Vegan Wheat Thins

Honey-Containing Wheat Thins

Smoky BBQ

Ingredients include:¹⁷

Whole Grain Wheat Flour
Soybean Oil
Sugar, Salt, Fructose
Leaveners (Calcium Phosphate And/or Baking Soda)
Cornstarch, Yeast Extract
Malt Syrup (from Corn And Barley), Invert Sugar
Tomato Powder
Garlic and Onion Powders
Spices (includes Mustard)
Honey
Vegetable Color (Annatto Extract, Turmeric Oleoresin, Paprika Oleoresin), Caramel Color
Citric and Malic Acids
Caramel Color
Natural Flavor (Includes Smoke)

Honey Mustard

These contain:¹⁸

Whole Grain Wheat Flour
Soybean Oil
Sugar, Salt
Cornstarch
Malt Syrup (from Corn And Barley), Refiner’s Syrup
Maltodextrin, Dextrose
Leavening (Calcium Phosphate And/or Baking Soda)
Onion Powder
Prepared Mustard (Distilled Vinegar, Mustard Seed, Salt, Turmeric, Spices, Garlic Powder)
Honey Solids
Citric Acid
Spices, Natural Flavor
Vinegar Solids
Vegetable Color (turmeric Oleoresin, Annatto Extract)
Yeast Extract
Sodium Diacetate (a Flavor)
Lactic Acid

Keep in mind that the presence of honey doesn’t render a food product non-vegan by all standards in the community. There’s always been somewhat of a divide among vegans when it comes to insect-derived substances like honey and confectioner’s glaze.¹⁹

But, it is largely considered non-vegan.

If you’re okay with honey, there aren’t any other problematic ingredients in the above two flavors.

Smoke flavor was included in the Smokey BBQ flavor and lactic acid in the Honey Mustard variety and these two ingredients sometimes raise alarms.

Smoke flavor is fine for vegans as it’s just derived from the destructive distillation of wood.

Lactic acid is usually considered vegan.⁵

It’s not the same as lactose. While it can be produced from milk sugar, it tends to be made industrially via fermentation of LA-producing bacteria or by chemical synthesis using precursors from the petroleum industry.^20,21

Milk Containing Wheat Thins

I won’t bother listing all of the ingredients here, but both the ranch and chili cheese flavors contain milk in one form or another.

The ranch flavor contains whey protein, buttermilk, lactose, and cultured milk.²²

The chili cheese flavor contains whey, non-fat milk, cultured milk, and buttermilk.²³

That’s it for the vegan status of Wheat Thins. Thanks for reading.

You may also want to check out the following related articles:

References

Smart Label, Wheat Thins Original. https://smartlabel.mondelezinternational.com/44000030377#
Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butylated_hydroxytoluene
Yehye, Wageeh A., et al. (2015). “Understanding the chemistry behind the antioxidant activities of butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT): A review”. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 101: 295–312. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S022352341530101X?via%3Dihub
Helmut Fiege, et al. “Phenol Derivatives” in Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2002. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/14356007.a19_313
Vegetarian Journal’s Guide To Food Ingredients. https://www.vrg.org/ingredients/
Nabisco Wheat Thins, Big. https://www.fooducate.com/product/Nabisco-Wheat-Thins-Big/87AD36C6-E10B-11DF-A102-FEFD45A4D471
Nabisco Wheat Thins Hint of Salt Snacks, 9.1 Oz. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Nabisco-Wheat-Thins-Hint-of-Salt-Snacks-9-1-Oz/20897689
Nabisco Wheat Thins Multigrain Snacks, 8.5 Oz. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Nabisco-Wheat-Thins-Multigrain-Snacks-8-5-Oz/20897691
Wheat Thins Zesty Salsa Crackers 9 oz. https://www.instacart.com/kroger/products/35368-wheat-thins-zesty-salsa-crackers-9-oz
Golden Syrup. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_syrup
Joe Pastry – Refiner’s (a.k.a. “Golden”) Syrup. https://joepastry.com/2012/refiners-syrup/
Wheat Thins – Sundried Tomato Basil Ingredients. https://www.nutritionix.com/i/wheat-thins/wheat-thins-sundried-tomato-basil/51d2fe31cc9bff111580ef7b
Caramel Color. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caramel_color
Smart Label, Nabisco Wheat Thins Spicy Buffalo Snacks 9 oz. https://smartlabel.mondelezinternational.com/44000030292#
Understanding Food: Principles and Preparation (Page 420). Amy Brown – Wadsworth Cengage Learning – 2011. ISBN-10: 0-538-73498-1
Maltodextrin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltodextrin
Wheat Thins Nabisco Wheat Thins Snacks Smoky BBQ 9 oz. https://www.instacart.com/hy-vee/products/39413-wheat-thins-nabisco-wheat-thins-snacks-smoky-bbq-9-0-oz
Wheat Thins Honey Mustard Crackers 9 oz. https://www.instacart.com/kroger/products/76651-wheat-thins-honey-mustard-snacks-9-oz
The Great Vegan Honey Debate. Is honey the dairy of the insect world? https://slate.com/human-interest/2008/07/why-vegans-can-t-decide-whether-they-re-allowed-to-eat-honey.html
Lactic Acid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid
H. Benninga (1990): “A History of Lactic Acid Making: A Chapter in the History of Biotechnology”. Volume 11 of Chemists and Chemistry. Springer, ISBN 0792306252
Wheat Thins, Ranch. https://www.fooducate.com/product/Nabisco-Wheat-Thins-Ranch-Crackers/7E36078A-9F50-11E1-882E-1231381BE564
Wheat Thins, Chili Cheese. https://www.instacart.com/big-y/products/3240182-wheat-thins-chili-cheese-flavor-9-0-oz