The 7 Best Vegan and Allergen-Friendly Halloween Candies

It's October, and as the days get shorter and the leaves start to turn, there are some things we look forward to this season, like wearing our favorite sweaters, and having an excuse to eat as much candy as we like. Even if you're not eating animal products, you can easily find delicious vegan candies that are made without any dairy, honey, gelatin, or other animal-based ingredients for your Halloween celebration.

Whether you're eating plant-based, vegan, or just avoiding dairy, here are our top picks for the best vegan and allergen-friendly Halloween candy to buy this year to enjoy yourself and pass out to trick-or-treaters.

The Best Vegan and Allergen-Friendly Halloween Candy

1. Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Sunflower Seed Buttercups

Deciding what to put in your candy bowl for those trick-or-treaters can be the trickiest of all tricks. You don’t want to include anything that kids might be allergic to, and while peanut butter cups are a firm favorite, they aren’t suitable for everyone.

Luckily, Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Sunflower Seed Buttercups are the vegan answer. They taste like peanut butter cups but are completely free of peanuts and use salted and sweetened sunflower seed butter, which perfectly mimics the taste of peanut butter. These treats are also free from gluten and soy, the chocolate is also Fairtrade, and, yes, they are completely vegan.

Nutrition-wise, you're getting some protein with four grams per two pieces, but you'll also consume seven grams of saturated fat and 11 grams of sugar. However, because these are made with sunflower seeds containing three grams of fiber per two cups, it may help to slow down that high sugar spike somewhat.

Find these at your local Trader Joe's. 

2. Enjoy Life’s Halloween Dark Chocolate Minis

A bag of Halloween Chocolate Minis has 18 individually wrapped square bars of vegan chocolate, making it the ideal Halloween choice. Each Enjoy Life bar contains only three ingredients — unsweetened chocolate, cane sugar, and cocoa butter, making them incredibly simple and tasty.

The chocolate comes from the grinding of cocoa beans, with nothing else added (don't be deceived by the word ''butter'' in cocoa butter, as it's entirely vegan). They also come in a cute Halloween bag with a bat on the front, so you can share them at your Halloween party or as gifts.

When looking at how healthy these treats are, they do of course contain sugar (four grams per bar) but it is cane sugar which is less refined and contains some of its natural ingredients. Because there are only three ingredients in these treats, kids avoid overloading on synthetic colorings and additives.

Purchase on Enjoy Life's website. 

3. Red Vines

Red Vines are simply the red version of the original black licorice twists. While you can get Red Vines in strawberry flavor, it’s the original red licorice flavor that is the most popular. They're fun to eat and tug on, and last.

The Red Vines products are all vegan and you can still buy them in the pleasing sturdy tub. However, with 12 grams of sugar in three twists, and containing high-fructose corn syrup, these aren't the healthiest treats, so make sure your kids only have one or two.

Find Red Vines near you using the brand's online locator. 

4. Smarties

Depending on where you live ‘Smarties’ is going to mean something different. In the UK Smarties are chocolate beans and not vegan, while in the US they are something else completely. Here Smarties are slim fizzy round sweets. Ironically, the original owner of Smarties in the U.S. was an Englishman who moved to New Jersey in 1949 and set up his candy business. These small discs of sugar are also gluten-free so you can pop rolls of them in your candy bowl knowing they are safe for everyone.

Although they only contain 25 calories per roll, they are made using artificial colorings which some children may be sensitive to.

You can find Smarties at your local supermarket. 

5. Unreal Dark Chocolate Coconut Bars

It seems unreal that you can get a candy bar with 51percent less sugar than most rivals and only uses three ingredients. That’s why these treats are called Unreal. Each bar contains organic coconut, cassava syrup, and dark chocolate, and that’s it. They are lower in sugar than some other treats, containing just three grams per serving. You can also enjoy them knowing they don’t contain any palm oil.

These bars are made using only natural colorings and fairtrade ingredients and are non-GMO. They may not be suitable for those who have severe allergies because of the production methods.

You can purchase Unreal treats on the brand's website. 

6. Smart Sweets’ Cola Gummies

The Smart Sweets website has an array of choices, most of which are vegan, but the crowd-pleaser is their cola bottle candy. Their tagline is "kick sugar keep candy," which lets you know they are all about keeping the sugar content low, and these cola candies have 42 percent fewer calories than others on the market.

They come in pocket-sized bags so you can pop them in your trick-or-treat bowl or hand them out at a party. Smart Sweets was set up by Tara, who wanted a healthier alternative to the candy she loved but struggled to find it. Undeterred, she simply set the business up herself.

Find Smart Sweets at your local Whole Foods Market. 

7. No Whey Ghoulish Graveyards

It’s impossible to choose just one Halloween candy from No Whey’s selection, but the Ghoulish Graveyard cream-filled chocolate coffins are a fun addition to any Halloween bowl. Or choose the chocolate lollipops in skull shapes, pumpkins, and spiders, which look and taste amazing.

You can buy them individually, or in a pack of three – or several packs of three! When No Whey tells you there are no scary ingredients in their products, they mean it. Although Ghoulish Graveyard chocolates are free of dairy, one serving still packs in nearly a quarter of your daily saturated fat, so don't indulge in too many.

Purchase No Whey candy on the brand's website. 

For more plant-based products, visit The Beet's Product Reviews.