About Little Debbie donuts

Vegetarian Journal, July-August, 2004

A reader asked us to investigate the rumor that Little Debbie's donuts are vegan and that the company is Seventh-day Adventist.

We strolled over to Rite Aid (a major drug store chain) and found a Little Debbie Glazed Cake Donut for $.50. Ingredients included: vegetable shortening, sugar, enriched bleached flour, water, dextrose, soy flour, cornstarch, mono- and diglycerides, sodium stearoyl lactylate, soy lecithin, salt, natural and artificial flavors, modified wheat starch, baking soda, sodium acid pyrophospate, monocalcium phosphate, sodium propionate, potassium sorbate, beta-carotene, fumaric acid, and agar.

In response to our inquiry, Little Debbie's supplier reported that their single-serve Glazed Cake Donut does not contain any animal byproducts. The natural flavors and mono- and diglycerides are from non-animal sources. They use a milkless, eggless donut base and vegetable shortenings.

As it turns out, Little Debbie is distributed by McKee Foods Corporation, which is owned by a Seventh-day Adventist family. However, they gave no indication that this belief system is the reason that the donut does not contain animal products.

One Little Debbie Donut weighs 3.5 ounces (99 grams) and has 450 calories, 26 grams of fat, and 6 grams of saturated fat. As a comparison, Nutrilicious, which promotes itself as a natural bakery with many vegan products, sells a Cake Donut that weighs 2.75 ounces (78 grams) and provides 310 calories, 16 grams of fat, and 1 gram of saturated fat. (Adjusting for weight, 3.5 ounces of the Nutrilicious Cake Donuts would yield approximately 395 calories, approximately 20 grams of fat, and just over 1 gram of saturated fat.)