After Years in the Wilderness, Canada Sees Halal Skittles

Gulf countries, Malaysia and Singapore have all enjoyed Skittles (and Starburst) made with Halal gelatin for years now; Mars Foods UK realised nearly a decade ago that making Skittles with vegetable ingredients would massively increase their market share by appealing to the sizable Muslim, Hindu, and vegetarian communities in that country - and so it is with all flavours.

North America, however, only ever saw sans gelatin Skittles Littles for a short time between 2004-2006, before they apparently failed to catch on and vanished from store shelves - until these Skittles above came along.

This anomaly, noticed by my younger sister Hira, junk food connoisseur, is the Skittles Berry Explosion/de baies (the lame translation of packaging into poor French marches on as ever) variety of the hard-shelled candy - in their 151 g package. They do not contain any gelatin or other animal ingredients.

Not exactly as good as the UK has it, but then we are spared that hideous black currant flavour the Brits are apparently smitten with, which goes to show how serious the effects of widespread Seasonal Affective Disorder are in the land of constant gloom, brick, chavs - and the Daily Mail.