Is Sweet Baby Rays Vegan?

Sweet Baby Rays are known for their award-winning barbecue sauce; which comes in a variety of different styles, varieties, and flavors. But is their range vegan? I spent some time researching to find out!

So, is Sweet Baby Rays Vegan? Most of the products Sweet Baby Rays sell are vegan, including their most popular Original Barbecue sauce. However, some products in the range, such as those that include honey, are not considered vegan.

Thankfully, and for the most part – Sweet Baby Rays is naturally a vegan-friendly brand.

But, unfortunately, you can never be too careful.

You will need to unfortunately check each bottle.

Unless of course, you were to stumble across a list that showed and explained all the vegan and non-vegan options.

So, that’s what we shall now do.

It will save you some time, at least.

Sweet Baby Ray’s Vegan Friendly Sauces

The following sauces from Sweet Baby Rays are considered Vegan:

Sweet Baby Ray’s Original BBQ Sauce

The original, most popular, and flagship product of the brand. And thankfully, its vegan.

Here is the full ingredient list, for reference:

High Fructose Corn Syrup, Distilled Vinegar, Tomato Paste, Modified Corn Starch, Salt, Pineapple Juice Concentrate, Smoke Flavouring, Spices (Mustard, Celery), Colour: E150D, Preservative: E211, Molasses, Corn Syrup, Dried Garlic, Sugar, Tamarind, Flavouring

Looks good right?

But what about the flavorings?

Well, representatives at the company have confirmed that they do not contain, or derive from, any animal products.

Excellent.

So feel free to stock up on this delicious sauce.

My recommendation – buy it in bulk over at Amazon!

And with the main product safely covered, what about the rest?

Here they are:

• Hickory Barbecue Sauce
• Sweet N Spicy Barbecue Sauce
• Hawaiian BBQ Sauce
• Sweet Golden Mustard Barbecue Sauce
• Sweet Vidalia Onion Barbecue Sauce
• Buffalo Wing Sauce
• Kickin’ Bourbon Wing Sauce
• Sweet Teriyaki Marinade
• Steakhouse Marinade

All of which are vegan-friendly.

Sweet Baby Ray’s Non-Vegan Friendly Sauces

Unfortunately, not all of the sauces Sweet Baby Rays sell are vegan friendly, and one of their most popular sellers is part of this list I’m afraid:

Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey BBQ Sauce

Clues in the title really. Honey – derived from bees.

And as Sweet Baby Rays use real honey in their recipes, this one I’m afraid, is out.

Here’s the ingredient list, for reference:

High Fructose Corn Syrup, Distilled Vinegar, Tomato Paste, Honey (2%), Modified Corn Starch, Salt, Flavouring, Colour: E150D, Pineapple Juice Concentrate, Spices (Mustard, Celery), Preservative: E211, Smoke Flavour, Dried Garlic, Molasses, Corn Syrup, Sugar, Tamarind

And unfortunately, this brand does love to use honey in their product range and in other products.

So the following sauces appear non-vegan too:

• Maple Barbecue Sauce
• Honey Hot Sauce and Marinade
• Honey Barbecue Wing Sauce

But it’s not always just honey that can cause some of these products to be suitable.

Sweet Baby Rays Sweet Red Chili Wing Sauce contains milk, making this not suitable.

And then the Creamy Buffalo Wing Dipping Sauce and Ray’s Secret sauce both contain egg-yolk.

Also, not vegan.

Finding Vegan-Friendly Barbecue Sauce

Now that we know that the original Sweet Baby Rays sauce is vegan; it makes sense to stick with that.

However, I appreciate it’s not always that simple.

Sometimes stores run out of stock, sometimes they do not stock the brand altogether.

Well thankfully, most brands and recipes of barbecue sauce are naturally vegan.

Most – not all.

Some brands will specifically state they are vegan-friendly.

Some stores may even put them into a vegan-friendly section, or be a vegan-friendly store altogether.

That makes it easy.

But in most cases, you’re going to need to do some checks.

So just like with any sauce, it’s essential that you do check the ingredients on the packaging.

You likely know this already, but you are going to need to look out for:

• Milk, or milk dervied ingredients,
• Egg Yolk
• Honey

And then you do need to be careful with some of the flavorings and additives too.

So you may need to contact the company directly.

Or failing this, just run a search like this in Amazon.

That will start you in the right direction for finding brands.

Finally

A large proportion of the Sweet Baby Ray sauce range is vegan.

Including their most popular and delicious original sauce.

Phew.

But not all.

Especially those that are ‘honey-based or ‘honey inspired’.

And this company is known to use real natural honey in some of their recipes.

So here’s a good rule of thumb – if honey is in the title; rule it out.

From there you’ll need to check the ingredient list more closely.

Or just stick to the original.

There’s nothing wrong with doing that.

At least, from the perspective of your taste buds!

Are you wondering what other sauces may be vegan? Well, check out my guides below:

• Is Kewpie Mayo Vegan?
• Is A1 Sauce Vegan?
• Is Tomato Ketchup Vegan?
• Is Satay Sauce Vegan?
• Is Tartar Sauce Vegan?
• Is Hoisin Sauce Vegan?
• Is Curry Sauce Vegan?
• Are Chick Fil A Sauces Vegan?
• Is Nandos Sauce Vegan?