V8 Splash is a juice drink that is a variation of the popular vegetable juice, V8, made by Campbells. V8 Splash comes in about 15 different flavors and varieties including diet versions, smoothies and lemonade.
A quick glance at the ingredients label may lead one to assume that V8 Splash is indeed, vegan. After all, there is no milk, eggs or honey – all ingredients that would be an obvious giveaway that a drink is not vegan. However, there is one ingredient that causes a bit of an issue:
Sucralose
The sucralose that is contained within V8 Splash comes from Splenda.
In this article I’m going to explain what the issue with Splenda is and why it’s a no-no for ethical vegans. (I’ll also explain what an ethical vegan is and how they sometimes differ from non-ethical vegans)
What is the Issue with Splenda?
The Sucralose in V8 Splash comes from the artificial sweetener Splenda.
Is Splenda vegan?
Technically, no. While Splenda itself does not contain any animal derived products, it’s Splenda’s history of being tested on animals that is a red flag for ethical vegans.
Splenda was (and maybe still is?) tested extensively on animals. Not only was the effects of Splenda tested on animals, but reports that became public reported thousands of animal deaths due to the testing.
For an ethical vegan, animal testing is generally a deal-breaker when it comes to what they deem to be a vegan product.
What is an Ethical Vegan?
I first want to make a point to say that we here at VeggL are not here to judge “what type of vegan you are.” In fact, Jen and myself differ in this regard. Jen is mostly an ethical vegan and I am what Jen refers to as plant-based.
What does this mean?
To put it simply, an ethical vegan does the best they can to avoid all animal products, consisting of food, clothing/shoes, toiletries, makeup, wine/beer/alcohol and really any other product you can purchase. Most ethical vegans think of our environment as well and do the best they can to do actions that protect our planet.
A person, like myself, that is considered plant based will do the best they can to avoid animal products primarily within their food. Of course, this person can also be making purchases that protect our planet and that do not contain animal products but their lifestyle does not encompass this.
In addition, for some, if the occasional dairy product is in their meal, they don’t let it bother them the way it would an ethical vegan.
“Accidentally-Vegan”
Some vegans will refer to products like V8 Splash as “accidentally-vegan”.
Accidentally-vegan generally describes a product that was not intended to be vegan, but doesn’t contain any animal products directly in it.
Products made with white sugar (also not considered vegan by ethical vegans for a completely different reason) like Oreos, Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos and Clif Bars.
At the end of the day, only you can make the decision on what your beliefs are and what that means to you. I know, at times, Jen will have some Oreos just as at times, I will pay extra attention to what the shoes are made out of that I’m looking to buy.
Is the ‘Natural Flavoring’ in V8 Splash Vegan?
The sucralose isn’t actually the only ingredient that will give veteran vegans pause.
Natural Flavoring is an often overlooked ingredient that can be an enormously wide range of things. Some of these things can be animal derived.
For example, one of the more well known animal derived ‘natural flavorings’ is carmine. Carmine comes from the Cochina Beetle which is ground up and added to foods to give a red coloring.
A few years back there was a ton of controversy of whether the ‘natural flavoring’ in V8 was vegan. After a few hours of research, we feel pretty comfortable saying the ‘natural flavoring’ in V8 Splash is vegan.
V8 Splash Flavors
We felt remiss if we didn’t include what flavors of V8 Splash we looked at while researching this article. Here are the current flavors of V8 Splash that are, “accidently vegan,” due to the added Splenda.
- Strawberry Banana Smoothie
- Pina Colada Smoothie
- Diet Berry Blend
- Diet Tropical Blend
- Tropical Blend
- Berry Blend
- Strawberry Kiwi
- Fruit Medley
- Mango Peach
- Cherry Pomegranate
- Orange Pineapple
- Blue Raspberry
- Island Strawberry
- Watermelon Cherry
- Strawberry Lemonade
Final Thoughts
As you can see, giving an answer to whether or not V8 Splash is vegan isn’t as straightforward as one would think.
First, you have to take a deep dive into ingredients like sucralose and natural flavoring to find out what the source of those ingredients are.
Once you have that info, then it’s up to you to decide whether or not you consider that product vegan.
No matter what you decide, we think that just the fact that you’re reading this article and trying to educate yourself on these matters is pretty awesome!
Disclaimer: We at VeggL work extremely hard to make sure all the information contained on VeggL.com is as accurate as possible. However, sometimes products and ingredients can change. If you see something on VeggL that you think needs to be updated then please let us know! We are not responsible for outdated or incorrect information.
