When starting out on this journey to eat more plants sometimes we assume that something is plant-based because “Why would they put animal products in that?” Sadly, unless we are looking at the whole-food plant we can’t assume. If you’ve been following us for awhile you likely remember the story of Russ and I learning that our favorite watering hole where we loved to go for happy hour and where the bartenders knew us, put egg whites in there margaritas. The only reason we found out was because they got new menus and the margarita had a * next to it. I thought it was a typo because that * was the warning about consuming under-cooked foods. I asked how you can under-cook a margarita and was told they put egg whites in them to making the “frothy.” We have not been back since.
That is a really long story to say, you can’t assume. Jello, marshmallows and most gummy candies are made from gelatin. Gelatin is made by boiling leftover animal parts (skin, bones, horns, cartilage). Pretty far from plant-based.
If you don’t want to take my word for it, this wiki page has the basics. But I’ll warn you, if you read it you’ll never want to eat gelatin again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin