Guidance on vegetarian and vegan labelling
Food Standards Agency
Good news for UK vegetarians, and those of us outside the UK fortunate to find these products on shelves elsewhere:
The [Food Standards] Agency has published guidance for to improve food labelling for vegans and vegetarians.I see the occasional labels like this in the U.S. -- as well as, simply, "VEGAN" -- on various products, particularly brands with a reputation for being veg-friendly, like Amy's Organics and Fantastic Foods. But it would nice to see this on any product that is also "accidentally" vegan.
It was produced after consultation with stakeholders including The Vegetarian Society and The Vegan Society and provides criteria for the use of the terms vegetarian and vegan on food labels for the first time.
There are approximately 3.5 million vegetarians and 0.25 million vegans in the UK. The guidance should make it easier for these consumers to identify the products that are suitable for them.
It aims to improve consistency in the use of the terms on food labels by manufacturers and caterers and help enforcement agencies to identify misleading labelling.
The guidance should also help to prevent some common mistakes by companies such as labelling drink or food that has been derived from animal products or fish as suitable for 'vegans' and 'vegetarians'.
[snip]
George Rodger, Chair of The Vegan Society said: 'As more and more foods have become available in packaged form, vegans have had to become accustomed to reading long lists of ingredients to see whether or not a product is suitable for them.
'The new food-labelling guidance from the Food Standards Agency will make things so much easier. If a product is labelled ‘suitable for vegans’ in accordance with this guidance, they need look no further.'
I am just tired of reading labels.
Categories: labeling | labelling
Posted by Eric @ 10:02 PM | Permalink|
5 comments
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5 Comments:
It is so tedious to have to peruse a new product for hours to determine if it is vegan friendly or not. It would be a wonderful thing if the labeling went into effect, but I wonder the repurcussions of Oreos being touted as healthier simply because they are such a conglomeration of chemicals that they HAPPEN to be vegan.
Overall I think this is a wonderful thing. It's just like when things began being labeled Parve and Kosher, so much easier!
I really wish that standards like this would be adopted all around, because I have lost count of all the phone calls I've had to go through with my father when he's out shopping and doesn't know if something's safe for me to eat or not. Life would be so much easier for me when I have to go shopping and don't know the source of the so-called "natural flavors".
However, living in the United States, I don't think food manufacturers will catch on as fast as the ones in the UK.
Wow, that's pretty awesome. My first question was how they were going to define those terms, but it looks like they're using the most extreme definitions which is good. So ingredients filtered with animal byproducts would not be considered vegan. It's probably too strict for people like me, but still very helpful. Hopefully the United States follows suit eventually.
Living in the UK, I can only applaud this move. Labels here are already quite comprehensive and usually state all potentially unwanted ingredients; however, I have come across at least a couple of products what are labelled 'vegan', while listing honey as one of the ingredients. I hope that were won't be any such mistakes with the new labelling system. Now we only need for the rest of Europe and the US to adopt a similar system!
that's be really cool if it happens :)
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