Clif Bars are a popular energy bar, and for many vegans (including myself), they are an invaluable part of a vegan diet. Clif Bars pack a lot of calories and nutrients, and usually contain a high amount of protein.
So Are Cliff Bars vegan?
If you are an active vegan, or just always on the go, they can really come in handy. If you asked yourself “are Cliff Bars vegan” you should know that most Clif Bars are vegan – meaning they don’t contain any animal derivatives. So far, I’ve only found two flavors of the original-style bars that are not vegan: Mini Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch and Mini Blueberry Crisp.
Use the Clif Bar Website to Find Vegan Friendly Bars
Clif Bar used to have a tool on their website that let you sort products by “vegan.” For whatever reason – perhaps because so few of their products contain animal ingredients – they got rid of this feature. Now, they simply state in response to what products of theirs are vegan:
It depends on your definition. Many of our products do not include ingredients from animal sources.
Any Clif food with an ingredient list that includes an animal sourced ingredient such as milk, whey, casein or honey would not be considered vegan-friendly or plant-based.
We want you to know that those products with a label that includes a statement such as ‘contains’ or ‘may contain’ milk or dairy may have possible cross-contact with an animal source in the making of our food. Knowing that information, you can decide how comfortable you are in light of your own dietary preferences or dietary restrictions with the risk of possible cross-contact.
Clif Bar Varieties
Clif Bars come in a wide variety of flavors and styles. Clif Bar (original), Clif Builder’s, and Clif Crunch are the most popular styles and the ones you will commonly see in most convenient stores and grocery stores. You wouldn’t think the Clif Builder’s bars are vegan because they have chocolate on them, but they are. Just know that on the Clif Builder’s labels it does say that they are produced in a factory that may also produce dairy products.
Clif Mini Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch and Mini Blueberry Crisp
As I mentioned earlier, the only two original Clif Bars I’m aware of that aren’t vegan are the Mini Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter and the Mini Blueberry Crisp bars. The key word, however, is “mini.” Only mini versions of these bars are not vegan. The full size, or normal size, versions of these bars are vegan. It is unclear why the mini versions of these bars are not vegan – that is to say, what ingredients they contain that are not vegan – but the Clif Bar website says they aren’t.
Personally I’d consider them vegan if there are no animal derived ingredents, even if the company says they aren’t vegan. It might be an issue of cross contamination from another product produced using the same equiptment.