Veggie Percy Pigs - Marks and Spencer

Percy Pig™ soft gums from Marks and Spencer are enormously popular. But, as with most types of edible gum, they’re not suitable for vegetarians because they’re made with gelatine. If you’re a veggie and have ever wondered why Percy Pigs are such a big deal, well, now’s your chance to find out.

Just arrived in Marks and Spencer foodhalls are ‘Veggie Percys’. New Veggie Percy is completely gelatine free and contains no artificial colours or flavourings. They even have fewer calories than original Percy Pigs with just 25 per sweet compared with 30 calories for original Percy Pig™.


After passing round a mixture of original Percy Pigs and Veggie Percys to some non-vegetarians, the general consensus was that Veggie Percy Pigs are very similar in taste to Percy Pig™, but they did notice a difference. Some thought the cherry flavour in Veggie Percy came through a little stronger and everyone noticed the slight difference in texture. Veggie Percy can be bitten through quite easily whereas Percy Pig™ requires a bit more chewing.

While Veggie Percy and Percy Pig™ look similar, there is one distinct difference – Veggie Percy has one green ear. This is your proof that it’s a genuine vegetarian Percy Pig.

Veggie Percy can be found alongside Percy Pigs in M&S foodhalls.

Original Veggie Percy

UPDATE MAY 2019

You may have read about or even been caught out by the new revamped recipe for Percy Pigs. M&S have now made all their Percy Pigs suitable for vegetarians by removing the gelatine. Quite why they've done this when they already have a veggie Percy Pig alternative, I have no idea!!

And there seems to have been a public outcry at the new recipe for Percy Pigs with many people not at all happy with the new flavour.

Although I'm not someone who eats this type of sweet, I thought I'd go and see what the difference is. I tried one myself, gave some to my daughter and hubby tried some too.

New Vegetarian Percy Pig

New Vegetarian Percy Pig & Pals

Maybe it's because we're not regular consumers of Percy Pigs that we couldn't directly compare them, but none of us found anything offensive about their taste. We all thought there was an undercurrent flavour of almond although almond isn't anywhere in the ingredients. They're quite chewy like the original Percy's and still sweet.

New Vegetarian Percy Pigs - No green ear like the originals

Although they are suitable for vegetarians, they're not vegan because they contain beeswax.

I've put the ingredients and nutrition values for the new Vegetarian Percy Pigs below.


Nutrition Information: Per Original Veggie Percy: 25 calories, trace protein, 6.2g Carbohydrate, 3.9g sugar, trace fat, trace saturated fat, trace fibre, trace salt. Contains no artificial colours or flavours. Suitable for vegetarians.

Ingredients: Per Original Veggie Percy: Glucose syrup, sugar, fruit juice from concentrate (3%), citric acid, gelling agent: pectin, hydrolysed pea protein, fruit and vegetable concentrates (grape, blackcurrant, elderberry, apple, safflower), flavourings (strawberry, cherry, raspberry and grape), glazing agent: beeswax.

Nutrition Information: Per NEW Vegetarian Percy 100g: 27 calories (Per sweet) 355 calories per 100g, 1.1g protein, 82.1g Carbohydrate, 57.4g sugar, 0.2g fat, less than 0.1g saturated fat, less than 0.1g fibre, 0.05g salt. Contains no artificial colours or flavours. Not suitable for milk allergy sufferers..

Ingredients: Per NEW Vegetarian Percy: Glucose syrup, sugar, modified potato starch, Dextrose, modified tapioca starch, fruit juice from concentrate (3.5%) (apple, mandarin, elderberry), acid: citric acid, malic acid, lactic acid, potato protein flavouring, fruit concentrates (red grape, elderberry),  glazing agent: beeswax, caramelised sugar syrup.

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