If you’ve ever eaten out at a Chinese restaurant, chances are you’ve come across a fortune cookie at some point. They can be a fun way to end the meal. But are fortune cookies vegan?
Whether you love them or hate them, fortune cookies still seem to be a popular part of a meal at many Chinese restaurants or with Chinese takeout.
And while the fortune on the inside is meant to be a playful end to the meal, it’s what else may be inside these crispy treats that may give you some pause, especially if you live a vegan lifestyle.
While many major fortune cookie brands are vegan, some do include animal products, such as egg whites. And they may contain other ingredients such as artificial dyes and refined sugars that may not strictly be vegan. So if you’re eating out, it’s a good idea to ask your server or check the label.
In this post, I’ll take a look at several of the most popular fortune cookie brands to see if their cookies are vegan. I’ll also answer whether some popular Chinese restaurants’ fortune cookies are vegan.
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History of the fortune cookie
While fortune cookies are a mainstay at many Chinese restaurants, its believed that they originated in Japan, before being popularized in America.
Researchers say that bakeries in Kyoto, Japan were creating cookies with a fortune inside as early as the 1870s. It’s likely that Japanese migrants then introduced the cookies to America as they traveled to Hawaii and California in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
At the time, Chinese food was becoming increasingly popular in the United States, but Japanese cuisine, especially raw fish, wasn’t. So instead of opening Japanese restaurants, many Japanese immigrants opened Chinese ones, keeping the fortune cookies as part of the menu.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the subsequent U.S. internment of Japanese Americans, many Japanese-American shops that produced fortune cookies closed. Soon, Chinese-American bakeries began to produce and sell the crispy cookies, cementing the belief of their apparent Chinese origin.
How are fortune cookies made?
They start with a fortune cookie batter that’s poured into thin, small circles, then baked on a cookie sheet.
Before they’re fully brown, the cookies are removed from the oven while they’re still pliable and soft. At this point, pre-written fortunes on small strips of paper are slipped into the cookie. Then they’re bent into the fortune cookie shape.
Next, these delicious harden and become crispy during the cooling process. Finally, they’re wrapped in an individual airtight container to prevent them from drying out.
Is a fortune cookie vegan?
Most classic fortune cookies are made with plant-based vegan ingredients that include flour, sugar, vanilla, soybean oil, and sometimes sesame seed oil.
But some can also include refined sugar and natural & artificial flavors, along with artificial dyes and food colorings. Some of those ingredients have been linked to animal testing.
Additionally, some sugars are often bleached with the use of bone char. This substance derives from cattle bones and it helps give sugar its bright white color.
So while these ingredients don’t contain animal products, they may still not be compatible with a vegan diet. If you’re vegan, it’s a good idea to check the ingredients list or ask restaurant waitstaff before consuming fortune cookies.
Major fortune cookie brands: are they vegan?
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest fortune-cookie makers and whether their cookies are vegan.
Wonton Food
The world’s largest producer of commercial fortune cookies is Wonton Foods. Headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, they produce over 4.5 million a day.
Their product label lists the following ingredients:
- Bleached Wheat Flour
- Sugar
- Water
- Soybean Lecithin
- Soybean Oil
- Natural & Artificial Flavor
- Sodium Bicarbonate
- Yellow 5 & 6
While none are animal products, the sugar, artificial flavors, and natural flavors may contain animal by-products for the reasons noted above. So while they are likely suitable for most vegans, if you’re a strict vegan, this brand may not be an option for you.
Golden Bowl
Another large producer is Golden Bowl fortune cookies, and they list theirs as vegan and diary-free. These cookies come in vanilla, chocolate, and citrus flavor and contain the same ingredients as those in Wonton Food fortune cookies. So the same vegan stipulations apply here.
Sky
Also sold in vanilla and chocolate flavors, as well as in a flat shape, these cookies list most of the same ingredients as Wonton and Golden Bowl. So they can be considered vegan fortune cookies.
Super K
Similar to the other cookies on this list so far, Super K fortune cookies can be considered safe for vegans as their ingredients list does not show any animal products. In fact, it’s essentially the same as the previous brands’ recipes.
La Choy
These also list the same ingredients as the other cookies listed previously, so they can be an option for vegans. They’re also manufactured at a facility that is GFSI-certified. The Global Food Safety Initiative oversees food standards at businesses worldwide to help ensure food safety.
Baily’s
Baily’s fortune cookies add corn oil and cottonseed oil to the ingredients contained in the other fortune cookie brands listed. Those are also plant-based ingredients, so these treats are also compatible with vegan lifestyles.
PF Changs
If you like dining at the popular Chinese food chain PF Changs and you’re vegan, you may want to steer clear of the fortune cookies. They’re made with the non-vegan ingredient egg whites, so they are not vegan.
Panda Express
Panda Express fortune cookies list ingredients including enriched flour, soybean oil and hydrogenated soybean oil, corn starch, sugar, salt, and artificial flavorings. None of these ingredients are animal-based, though the artificial flavorings may not be strictly vegan if they’re tested on animals.
Furthermore, Panda Express notes that they prepare their foods with shared cooking equipment which could result in cross contamination. They also state they do not have any vegetarian or gluten-free dishes.
Bottom line
So are fortune cookies compatible with a vegan lifestyle? In most cases, the answer is yes, as many brands’ fortune cookie recipes do not include animal ingredients.
However, if you’re a stricter vegan and do not consume products that include artificial flavors and colors that may be tested on animals — or refined sugars that may have been produced with animal bone char — then these treats may be off limits.
FAQ
Since most fortune cookies contain bleached wheat flour as a main ingredient, they are not gluten free. The process of bleaching wheat strips the bran and germ from the wheat kernel, which removes some of the gluten content, but this type of wheat-based flour still contains gluten.
More vegan-related answers
Wondering whether some other foods or drinks may be vegan? Check out these posts.
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