Whether you’re vegan, vegetarian or have a dairy allergy or intolerance, it’s difficult sometimes to find trustworthy vegan food labels. Of course the easiest options is simply to use real wholesome ingredients to make your own food, then you don’t have to keep label-hunting in supermarkets.
Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets.
For people who eat animals foods, Compassion in World Farming proposes a simple 6-tier label system (more stringent than RSPCA-Assured, which is now so watered down that Brian May recently resigned as Vice-President).
The founder of Veganuary has recently launched the site Welfare Washing, to alert consumers to awful conditions for animals under this so-called welfare scheme.
While not directly related to vegan diets, allergy labels are important. One girl recently died in a coffee chain, due to sipping a tiny amount of dairy in a drink, that was not labelled.
Some vegan companies do make things in factories that handle dairy and egg (often as they don’t have the money to run a factory themselves). So always check labels, before purchase.
Some vegans only buy from vegan companies (others think that we have to ‘bring the others with us) and want to support them making changes. For instance, Richmond vegan sausages are popular (they taste the same and have more reach).
But the company also makes factory-farmed meat sausages. What do you think? Would you buy a vegan burger from McDonald’s? Or not?
The issue is when ‘vegan things’ are launched only for profit. If you’ve ever had a vegan bacon Whopper from Burger King – sorry to burst your bubble, but it’s cooked in animal fat.
As are KFC fries (and McDonald’s fries abroad). Even non-organic apples are usually sprayed in shellac (dead insects) to make them look waxy.
Understanding Vegan Nutrition Labels
Look at the serving sizes. If you’re vegan for health reasons, fibre on cereals should be 5g or more and 5g or less for sugars (in the carbs section). For ready-made cereals, that’s basically porridge and Shredded Wheat.
Some foods are ‘green traffic light’ but only for tiny sizes. A ‘green pack of biscuits (or packs of mini crisps) become ‘red’, if you eat the lot in one go!
It’s also important if you don’t take a supplement to look for fortified foods (for B12 and plant-based vitamin D).
Ingredients Should Use Plain English
Many ingredients (like palm oil) are not clearly labelled. Other non-vegan ingredients are casein, lanolin and gelatine (animal bones) but they won’t be written as this.
Ensure Wines and Beers are Vegan
One real annoyance is why vegan wines and beers are not in their own sections in supermarkets, as the companies manage to group by region. Many brands use bones or isinglass (fish bladder) to filter the drinks.
Your best bet is to look for organic wines, these are more likely to be vegan. Many top brands (like Blossom Hill and even some Co-op wines have milk or even gelatine in them).
Vegan Labels to Trust (or not)
Anything ‘certified vegan’ is usually a safe bet (though it may contain palm oil, see below). Governments worldwide (in order to appease farm lobbyists) are sometimes now insisting on brands not being to claim their item is the equivalent, so some now say ‘plant-based’ to avoid getting sued.
The issue is that many companies making meats and chicken now use this label too (so a chicken curry with lots of vegetables could still be ‘plant-based’ or even worse ‘plant-forward’ which confuses. Some people are now buy these cookbooks online, only to find they are not vegan.
Certified organic is the only label to trust (not ‘natural, organic or natural organic). Some companies can’t afford to certify, and that’s fine (just go on trust, you’ll likely know).
Vegan Foods Don’t Have Palm Oil
One label that really irks most vegans these days is ‘sustainable palm oil’. Palm oil may not kill cows and pigs, but its use is indirectly killing orangutans and other endangered species. Greenpeace says the term is as useful as chocolate teapot.
It has no legal status, it’s just a self-policed lobby that is not acting enough or fast enough. There are many palm oil alternatives (like rapeseed oil to support local farmers, or oil alternatives like apple sauce). Palm oil is packed with saturated fat, and only used to make cheap junk food or bar soaps (listed as sodium palmate).
Vegan charities that take money for palm-oil brands should do their homework, as they are losing credibility. The main website that takes money to certify brands containing says ‘it is not possible for consumers to boycott palm products’. It is – just make your own food from real ingredients.
Certified Vegan Business is an alternative certification by a marketing company. It’s not specifically to avoid palm oil, but all companies registered must be vegan, and it has stricter criteria from companies that are likely aware and working on the issues.
Any business type can apply, and after a one-off cost, there is a small retainer and no annual renewal fees.
This is our activism. 200 million land animals are killed every day, needlessly. When you have a vegan business, lives are literally at stake. Vegan Business Tribe
What’s With Banning of ‘Vegan’ Names?
Many vegan brands are no longer allowed to use words like ‘milk, cheese, eggs or meat’ on products. It’s daft (often because nobody wants factory farms, and England doesn’t have enough land for everyone to eat free-range).
It’s like corporate bullying to say that someone is not allowed to eat foods that taste the ones they grew up on, unless they support torturing creatures on factory farms.
To sue companies that have spent years creating kinder alternatives is crazy. Milk does indeed come from oats and coconuts. Breastmilk is milk. But we’re allowed to say that?
DEFRA recently ‘cracked down’ on such brands, saying they must not confuse consumers. Most people are not such idiots that if they buy ‘plantmilk’ they think it’s dairy milk.
Surely DEFRA should be more concerned with improving welfare for factory-farmed animals? Of course, it’s all politics, with farming unions lobbying government, in a growing vegan world.
Recently a Cornish woman had to close her small business, told her ‘vegan Cornish pasties’ were illegal. Yet she was supporting local farmers by using carrot, swede and potato (the main brands likely weren’t buying from Cornish farmers).
And the original Cornish pasty was half-fruit anyway (taken down mines with a crimped edge, to ‘throw the ghosts’).
Sometimes – the Little Man Wins!
Here are two stories to make you smile!
Just Foods (USA) created a vegan mayo, then was taken to court by the main brand that said he couldn’t do this, as his item had no eggs.
Due to the publicity about this zero-cholesterol alternative, the company dropped the lawsuit, he used the extra income to launch new products, and now the main brand has launched its own vegan mayo (you’ll find it in shops!)
The founder of Oatly (oat milk) is a shy Japanese-Swede, known for making TV ads (standing in a field, playing the piano and singing ‘Wow no Cow’ out of tune.
One company slogan was ‘like milk, but for humans’. Again, The Swedish dairy board took him to court. Again it generated so much good marketing and income, he says he wished he done it sooner!
