Shoppers prefer 'vegan' food labels to 'confusing' plant-based terms, according to new survey
Shoppers prefer 'vegan' food labels to 'confusing' plant-based terms, according to new survey
Vegan versus plant-based: The Big Vegan Survey 2024 reveals how shoppers prefer to have their food labelled.
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I've found that often "plant based" is a cop out and that companies that use it exclusively (so not only on the product, but also when you ask them outright if a product is suitable for vegans and they will only repeat "plant based") often make no effort to ensure the product is actually vegan (so no effort to avoid cross contamination and no testing to ensure no animal products have ended up in the food), they just want the vegan £££ and count on most people not taking the time to look in to it, or not caring enough.
Plantastic and "meet free" Fridge Raiders are a couple of examples that come to mind (I have been in touch with both manufacturers and both are very careful to never confirm that their products are suitable for vegans despite them marketing them directly at us), and also Flash I think it was, that I've noticed have now changed their ad which used to say something like "made with A plant based ingredient" as if that makes the whole product plant based..
It's a bit like greenwashing - wanting to make money off of the "green" market, without investing any money or effort to comply with the labelling rules.
I find vegans that care about cross contamination to be missing the forest for the trees. Veganism isn’t an allergy, it’s an ethical stance. How are animals harmed by having our food made in the same facilities as non-vegan food? Even PETA says you shouldn’t care about trace amounts of animal products when eating out so as not to make veganism seem difficult and inflexible to non-vegans thinking of making the switch.
And I find that vegans who purity test and gatekeep others are insufferable asses, who have a much deeper impact on why people hate vegans.
I bet it never even crossed your mind that some people with allergies and other medical conditions that mean they're avoiding certain ingredients use a vegan label for convenience (since it's easier to scan a "may contain" list, if there even is one, than an entire ingredients list with all its often ambiguous ingredient names), rather than ethics, nor can you explain how someone preferring to avoid cross contamination for whatever reason affects literally anyone but them..
I was not making a purity test, just stating my opinion on a worrying trend of vegans making actual purity tests by decreeing cross contamination as something all vegans should care about.
Making food more easily accesible to people with allergies is a worthwhile goal, but it has nothing to do with veganism.
Things that may contain traces of milk, egg etc can still have the EU vegan label.