Is Hershey King Size Original Halal?

The Ingredient Breakdown

When determining if a chocolate bar is halal, we look for specific red flags: alcohol used in flavorings, animal-derived fats other than milk fat, and pork-based emulsifiers. Let's look at the Ingredients found in Hershey King Size Original.

The primary ingredient is Sugar, which is halal. This is followed by Milk and Milk Fat. Dairy is naturally halal, provided the animal is healthy. The cocoa products—Cocoa Butter and Chocolate—are plant-derived fats and are perfectly safe.

For emulsifiers, Hershey uses Lecithin (Soy). Soy lecithin is a vegetable derivative and is widely accepted as halal. They also use PGPR (Polyglycerol Polyricinoleate), which is derived from castor beans (vegetable oil), not animal sources. Finally, the Natural Flavor is a generic term, but in the context of mass-market milk chocolate, this almost exclusively refers to vanillin or standard vanilla flavorings, which do not contain alcohol in this formulation.

Nutritional Value

A King Size bar is significantly larger than a standard snack, and the nutrition reflects that. A single serving (roughly 15g) contains about 70-80 calories, but the entire King Size bar (approx. 44g) packs nearly 220 calories.

The majority of these calories come from Sugar and Saturated Fat. With roughly 24g of sugar per serving, this chocolate bar exceeds the daily recommended limit for added sugars for many adults if eaten in one sitting. While the fat comes from Milk Fat and Cocoa Butter—which are natural fats—they are still calorie-dense. It is a treat designed for energy and indulgence, not nutritional sustenance.