Is Special K Vegan?

Special K is a popular brand of breakfast cereal made by Kellogg’s. The cereal is often marketed as a healthy breakfast food for adults, but it makes no claims about being vegan. That is because Original Special K is not vegan due to the fact that it contains calcium caseinate, a milk derivative. Aside from Original Special K, the cereal now also comes in a huge assortment of other flavors, including Red Berry, Vanilla Almond, and Chocolate Delight, just to name a few. Some of these other varieties don’t contain milk or any other dairy ingredients; however, the Special K flavors that don’t contain milk are still not vegan because they contain other animal derivatives, such as vitamin D3, which is derived from sheep.

Some of the ingredients labels for Special K cereals specifically say “vitamin D3,” whereas others just say “vitamin D,” but it’s safe to assume they all use D3 since they are all the same brand. Manufacturers are not required to specify whether they use vitamin D2, which is vegan, or vitamin D3, so if the vitamin is simply listed as “vitamin D,” it could be from either source. Despite the fact that Special K obviously uses D3 in most of their cereals, D2 seems to be the source that is used more often by most manufacturers.

Special K Original Ingredients

Rice, wheat gluten, sugar, defatted wheat germ, contains 2% or less of salt, whey, malt flavor, calcium caseinate. Vitamins and Minerals: Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), reduced iron, niacinamide, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), vitamin B1 (thiamin hydrochloride), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), folic acid, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin B12, vitamin D3.

Allergen Information: CONTAINS WHEAT AND MILK INGREDIENTS. 

Want to know if other popular breakfast cereals are vegan? Check out our Is It Vegan? category.