Inspectors from Hampshire and Kent Scientific Services found 24 (39%) out of 61 products marked as vegan contained egg or dairy, including 13 dairy alternatives and 48 meat alternatives. In total, 90% were found to be unsatisfactory – meaning they failed for traces of dairy or inaccuracies in their labelling and nutritional information.
This is unbelievable.
How much horse though
At least you’re very unlikely to be allergic to horse.
The health risk is more important than the ethics failure.
I know someone online who works for the FDA in the US quality controlling what the food manufacturers goods is actually what they claim it to be. I think he could tell some similar horror stories.
90%? It’s definitely shocking.
But there is currently no legal definition for vegan food, allowing firms to market their products as being so even if they contain dairy or egg.
This is quite alarming. It must mean that there is no regulation to ensure that vegan products are actually animal-free.
I’m struggling to believe that can be true. I’m not a vegan but I’m sure it’s be pretty upset if I were
There is no legal definition because even vegans don’t fully agree on the definition, but there are branded certifications like “vegan society approved”
That was the sentence that stood out to me the most as well. You’d think that would be essential
I know it’s daft but is there a legal definition of vegetarian food? If not then why would one exist for vegan?
Well really there should be one for both to avoid false marketing.
I don’t know if there’s one for vegetarian though
I would imagine that people with severe lacto-intolerance would need it most. Actual vegans - for ethical reasons - will find this incredibly horrifying.
Saying all that, though, I remember listening to a programme on the radio about how there was no definition of (cows) milk. At that time there were 50 or so different liquids containing all sorts of ingriedients that called themselves cows milk.
People with allergies will be looking out for allergen labelling. Veganism and vegetarianism aren’t allergies and some people will have no issues with traces.
Veganism isn’t an allergy and shouldn’t be used as an allergen indicator. From the article I can’t tell if the products are also missing suitable allergen labelling, the vegan alternatives I use always seem to indicate traces of animal products in the labelling.
