Live Well

Many foods these days carry the certification seal of some food indicator or another. There’s logos on food labels for Kosher-friendly foods, Gluten-Free foods, USDA or QAI organic foods and many others. It’s become almost a standard in this country for labels to have certain certifications for those consumers who look for foods with specific qualities.

Here’s my question — why isn’t it a standard to have a vegetarian or vegan certification on our food? There is definitely a significant population of vegetarians in the United States. The exact statistic cannot be assured but on this Vegetarian Times article here, it is mentioned that at least 8 million people follow vegetarian inclination in their diet (as an estimate for just the United States).

So, I went on a search to find some information about any vegetarian or vegan certification on food labels. I think they are an important thing as it would make vegetarians and vegans more comfortable and even more inclined to buy a product with a well-respected and certified logo or notification of an item’s assurance of following the veg*n diet.

It’s not to say that there aren’t any certifications or logos on food labels out there today. I’ve definitely seen them: in Trader Joe’s or Wegmans products often, on many yogurts, prepared foods (especially Indian) and vitamins, too.

So, here’s a basic overview of four vegetarian food labels just for the U.S. in this post. Thank you to this article by the Vegetarian Journal found on The FreeLibrary.com at this page.

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1. Natural Foods Certifiers Vegan Symbol

• Privately-owned company centered around kosher- and vegan-friendly products
• Includes specific testing to ensure the separation of any non-vegan or non-kosher products
• Checks source of ingredients to make sure of no animal testing or other bad practices

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2. Vegan Action Logo

• A program that requires companies to submit ingredient list and product management techniques
• Checks background for assurance of no bone-char refining methods for sugar or animal testing or sourcing
• Has certified over 1,000 vegan products in America

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3. Edward & Songs Trading Company Vegan Mark

• Was enacted to allow for consumers to make easier and more confident choices about buying vegan
• Checks ingredient list against PETA’s animal-ingredients list (here), for example
• Involves legal agreement to ensure good practices with vegan certification

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So, I hope this gives a helpful list of some of these certifications to look for when buying products. Feel confident in buying the foods with these certifications knowing that these great companies and organizations have done the beforehand research to make you as the consumer have an easier task of staying healthy and staying vegan.

Be well,

Brian

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Check out these links for more information:

Vegetarian certifications on food labels: what do they mean? – Vegetarian Journal via TheFreeLibrary -link-

Vegan Action | Vegan Certification -link-