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Dye Free Candy For Holidays

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Aren’t holidays the best, especially when you have kids? Every time you turn around, your kid is either asking for candy or showing you the latest treat given to him or her from school, church, neighbor, friend, basically anywhere you go.

If you’re anything like me, all you can think of is their teeth are going to rot out and they’ll be bouncing off the walls in no time.

It seems like we just move from one holiday full of colorful candy to another. From Halloween through to Valentine’s Day, there is no shortage of holiday candy lining the store shelves. We get a short break until Easter, then a break for summer and the cycle starts over again. Am I right!?!

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RELATED: Confessions from THAT Mom

What are the Dye Free Candy Options?

Dye Free Fruit Candies

You can have all the sugary goodness without the side of chemicals. It’s true I promise!

My kids and I have tried all of these and they are all really good. If you’re looking to hand these candies out to a large crowd, i.e. Halloween, you might want to look for the snack packs or you’re going to need a second mortgage on the house.

I chose to include products that are reasonably easy to find in most major grocery stores, Target, Walmart, etc. Of course, you can always shop Amazon right now, from the comfort of your own home.

Surf Sweets

Surf Sweets has all things gummy and jelly like. They have gummy worms, gummy fish, gummy rings, jelly beans. Several of the gummies are Certified Organic and NonGMO.

Black Forest

Black Forest is another option for gummy candy. The gummies are Certified Organic. These come in larger sizes so may be a bit more cost friendly.

YumEarth

YumEarth has Certified Organic and NonGMO lollipops galore in all sorts of yummy flavors. They also have gummies and fruit snacks that are Certified Organic and NonGMO.

Torie & Howard

Torie & Howard makes fruit chews in some pretty awesome flavor combinations. They are a healthier alternative to Starburst. Torie & Howard also makes hard candies in some yummy flavor combinations as well. They are all Certified Organic and NonGMO.

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Dye Free Candy Coated Chocolate

Chocolate candy doesn’t typically have artificial food coloring in it, unless its a candy coated chocolate. Honestly though, I’m not a big fan of the High Fructose Corn Syrup either and these brands leave that out.

Unreal Candy

Unreal Candy makes not only candy bars, which don’t tend to have artificial food coloring in them but also colorful dye free candy coated chocolate, which are a great substitute for M&M’s. They also make peanut butter cups, yummy! All are Fair Trade Certified, most are NonGMO.

Justin’s Candy

Justin’s makes not only peanut butter, cashew butter and almond butter but hey, they also make peanut butter and mini peanut butter cups. They are Certified Organic and Rainforest Alliance certified. I’m not the biggest fan of their almond butter but their peanut butter cups and mini peanut butter cups are simply divine. Justin’s was the first ‘fake Reese’s’ that I tried and it’s much better tasting than Reese’s. I would have never thought that was possible.

OCHO Candy

If you haven’t tried any of the OCHO candy bars, you are seriously missing out. They offer regular size candy bars and snack size in a variety of flavors to choose from

  • caramel
  • caramel peanut
  • coconut
  • dark caramel
  • peppermint
  • dark peanut butter
  • peanut butter
  • pb&j.

They are Certified Organic. Around the holidays you can also find fun holiday themed chocolates in shapes like Easter eggs and Halloween pumpkins and Christmas trees.

Dye Free Caramel Candy

When it comes to caramels, most plain old caramels don’t have artificial coloring in them but there is at least one (Brach’s Milk Mail Royals which have been known to show up in my kiddo’s halloween candy bucket) that does. These two do not.

Lovely Candies

Lovely Caramels were the first caramel I came across and they are good! I notice they have more in their product line.

  • hard candies
  • lollipops
  • gummies
  • fruit chews (alternative to the flavored Tootsie Rolls)
  • hula chews (alternative to Tootsie Rolls)
  • fruit snacks

The caramels, fruit chews, and hula chews are NonGMO and their hard candies and lollipops are Certified Organic.

Cocomels Candies

Cocomels are coconut milk caramels. My kids and I were given a pack of their Coconut Sugar Cocomels to try. One kid gave a thumbs up, the other was done at one. They have a variety of flavors and an assortment of products to choose from:

  • coconut milk caramels
  • chocolate covered cocomels
  • chocolate covered cocomel bites

Cocomels are Certified Organic, NonGMO, gluten free and dairy free.

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Food for thought:

Products that touch our skin can be just as harmful as foods we put into our bodies.

So if there are harmful chemicals in say your shampoo or body lotion or those wipes you use to clean the counter, it’s just as important to identify and eliminate those…

When you want your kids to help with chores or heck, if they’re asking to…don’t pass that up for fear of the harmful chemicals in cleaning products. Head here to find out what’s safe for them to use.

Last thoughts on dye free candy for the holidays

As I mentioned earlier, dye free candy (ie candy without toxic chemicals) isn’t cheap. Poisoning your family is.

I have purchased all the brands listed at one time or another and all are kid approved.

So what do I do with all the candy that comes home during the holidays? Well, thankfully we are finally out of elementary school so that headache is somewhat past me but I do keep these candies on hand to swap out when my kids bring home brands that I consider to be chemical junk.

Halloween is a slightly different story. I trade cash for the candy they get from trick or treating and give them some of the candies listed above so my kids aren’t deprived.

No, I don’t eat the chemical junk candy. We take it to the dentist to buy back or participate in a ‘send to the troops’ drive or do science experiments with it (check out Pinterest for some ideas).

Have you tried any of these brands? Comment below with your favorite or let me know which one you’ll try first!

Make it a green day!

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10 Comments

  1. We love YumEarth and Black Forest!! My son is extremely sensitive to dyes and we have spent a lot of time reading labels!!

    1. My daughter loves bonbons, the cone shaped candies that are hard ish on the outside and soft on the inside. We’ve never found dye free versions. Same with jawbreakers. Have you come across dye free versions of these in your travels?

      1. That’s a great question. I have not and did a bit of searching online and didn’t come across anything but that doesn’t mean it’s not out there, yet. I’ll keep an eye out and update this post if I find something. Thanks for the question.

  2. I appreciate the information in this article. It will help me encourage a particular family in one of my classes. (Just thought you should know that as a long-time military wife it was a bit hard to read your article then come to the end and learn that one solution you use to deal with with the unsolicited “poison” candy you collect is to send it off to the troops. May I offer a suggestion that might align better with the information you have acquired and heart to feed your family real and healthy things? Neither the military member, who are your own countrymen, nor the poor and desperate children they encounter should be a receptacle solution for items you know to not be good. I have learned to give myself permission to throw away an item in good or even new condition in the packaging than to pass to my neighbor something I know not to be good for them. I would like to encourage readers to consider purchasing candy from this list to make a thoughtful donation to the troops if really wanting to participate in their candy needs. Otherwise, the local dump seems to be a more fitting solution for candy you do not want. Just something to consider.)

    1. You raise a good point. I appreciate you sharing your perspective as a military spouse and love your suggestion about making thoughtful donations. While I personally avoid products with specific ingredients not everyone feels the same way. I believe in sharing information but letting people make their own decisions.

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