Multi-Grain and Yellow Box Cheerios are Vegan according to General Mills. In a recent inquiry, I was able to obtain confirmation of this after a detailed exchange with the company. Where I raised a concern was in asking about the ingredient Calcium Carbonate. It is mineral sourced but as I understand, it can be sourced from processed shells of shellfish and/or eggshells from chickens.

Here is a portion of that email from General Mills.

Thank you for contacting General Mills.

Calcium Carbonate is mineral sourced. There are no animal sourced ingredients in Multi Grain or Yellow Box Cheerios.

Thank you for your interest in General Mills. We hope this information is helpful to you.

For informative purposes, here’s a screenshot of vitamin and mineral content information of a box of regular Cheerios. The section on the left would be the cereal’s content on its’ own. The right side reflects content once milk is added. (I forgot to include the headers and this picture was taken at a nearby store).

As you can see, the Vitamin D content reflects zero with the cereal on its’ own. On the right side it reflects a 25% amount based on Vitamin D that would appear in cows’ milk. Cereals with standalone Vitamin D content are likely to contain lanolin, which is derived from sheep’s wool.

Note to readers unfamiliar with plant-based vegan diets: Honey-Nut Cheerios are NOT vegan. Nor are Frosted Cheerios. According to General Mills, Yellow-Box and Multi-Grain Cheerios are the only two from the Cheerios line that contain no animal-sourced ingredients.

@WriterDann