In this post, we’ll get into the vegan status of the original brown sauce also known as HP. Let’s get right to it…
Is HP Sauce Vegan?
After examining all of the ingredients, it’s pretty clear that orginal brown HP sauce is totally vegan. Feel free to enjoy this delicious British tradition without worrying if it has animal products.
Read Also: Is Ketchup Vegan?
Other HP Sauce Flavors
But wait, aren’t there other flavors of HP sauce? Let’s take a look at those and their vegan status…
- HP Honey BBQ – NOT Vegan. This sauce contains honey and therefore wouldn’t be classified as veg-friendly. Some vegans actually continue to eat honey (and personally I don’t really care), but in the most-used definition this would not be considered a vegan condiment.
- HP Fruity – The fruity variety does not contain any animal products and is there for vegan-friendly. It’s actually sweetened and flavored with mango chutney which is quiet delicious!
- HP Classic BBQ – Unlike the other BBQ sauce, there’s no honey in this one. Consider it another vegan flavor that you can enjoy!
- HP Reduced Salt and Sugar – Yes – this one is vegan also. It has very similar ingredients to the original brown sauce with no honey or animal products.
Original Brown HP Ingredients
According to the listing on Walmart, the ingredients in original HP sauce are as follows…
- Malt Vinegar (from Barley)
- Tomatoes
- Molasses
- Spirit Vinegar
- Glucose-Fructose Syrup (from Wheat)
- Dates
- Sugar
- Salt
- Modified Corn Starch
- Rye Flour
- Tamarind Extract
- Spices
- Onion Extract
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As you can see, there aren’t any non-vegan products in that list.
In case you’re wondering about the sugar. You may have read that it could be processed with bone-char, but we really have no way of knowing.
Since being vegan is to do the least harm to animals as possible and practicable, it’s not worth stressing yourself out over things that have little to no impact on animal suffering.
Just avoid all labeled animal products and you’re good!
Wrap Up
So Is HP Sauce Vegan? Absolutely! Just be sure to avoid the Honey BBQ flavor if you are staying away from honey as well.
Enjoy.

Hey, I’m Joey. I’ve been cooking since I was a little kid and love everything about it. You can find my writing about food, kitchen appliances (such as blenders) and much more. Thanks for stopping by!
Want to take all of the guess-work around going vegan?
Click here to check out the Vegan Starter Kit.