Everything you need to know about our Plant-Based trademark

By now, you may have noticed that the Vegetarian Society has launched a new Plant-Based trademark. We’re excited to introduce you to our new trademark and believe it will be a game changer for plant-based accreditation.

But what is it and why have we decided to launch it? In this article we’ll explain the trademark and the rationale behind it.

What is the current situation?

Until recently, we had two Vegetarian Society Approved trademarks – one for vegetarian products and one for vegan products. You’ll see these symbols thousands of products in shops all over the UK, the EU, the USA and many other countries. The vegetarian trademark has been in use since 1969, and the vegan trademark was registered in 2017.

Our trademarks are widely recognised – a recent YouGov survey to a representative sample of vegetarians and vegans across the UK found 75% of them actively look for Vegetarian Society Approved trademark on product packaging.

Why introduce a new Plant-Based trademark?

We believe there is demand from companies and consumers for more specific plant-based accreditation. From consumer research, it’s clear that consumers have a good understanding of the word ‘plant-based’. A YouGov poll from October 2024 found that 78% of people see a ‘plant-based’ product as one that contains no meat or dairy.

In addition, consumers prefer the word ‘plant-based’ to other alternatives. ‘protein’ and ‘plant-based’ are highest in appeal, while ‘meatless’ or ‘vegan’ are the least preferred labels.

What’s the background to this?

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) is currently proposing two categories in a new standard for plant-based products: ‘plant-based’ and ‘plant-rich’.

‘Plant-based’ foods are seen as those whose characterising ingredients are plants or plant-derived, without any use of animal-derived ingredients. ‘Plant-rich’ foods are similarly characterised by plant-derived ingredients but allowing for limited and conditional use of animal-derived ingredients. An example of this is the use of egg white in mycoprotein products like Quorn.

While allowing for managing of cross-contamination, the ISO’s draft proposal doesn’t address issues like the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or animal testing, so these are allowed under their standard, subject to current working practices.

What is a characterising ingredient?

The Vegetarian Society have been interpreting what constitutes a ‘characterising ingredient’ across food, drink, and non-food products with the help of a consultant. Our interpretation of a characterising ingredient is an ingredient that is essential to characterise the finished food, regarding sensory attributes and/or other attributes.

Take the world-famous Coca-Cola as an example. In our understanding, Coke is a plant-based product. This is because it is characterised by its distinctive flavouring which is based on natural plant extracts.

To give another example, strawberry-flavoured water which is flavoured from a plant-derived flavour would be considered a plant-based product, as its characterising ingredient is plant-based. If a similar strawberry-flavoured water had a synthetic strawberry flavour (which was not animal-derived), it would be regarded as a vegan product, not plant-based.

What are the criteria for the new Plant-Based trademark?

Our Plant-Based trademark differs from our vegan trademark in that it does not just ask that a product contains no animal-derived ingredients. Its criteria also require plants or plant-derived ingredients to be the key characteristic of the product.

Our vegan trademark is more stringent than the ISO’s proposed plant-based standard as it has the additional requirement that products contain no GMOs and no animal testing was involved in their production.

We didn’t want to dilute the animal welfare of products accredited as plant-based, so we decided to apply this rule to our Plant-Based trademark too. We have therefore gone above the ISO’s definition to create a gold-standard plant-based certification!

How should we use the Vegetarian Society trademarks now?

We can either recheck your vegan accredited products to see if they can be converted to our Plant-Based trademark, or accredit them from scratch if they don’t already have any accreditation from us.

We have one set of checks to give you flexibility over how to market your product. We’ll check to see if your product meets our vegan accreditation criteria. At the same time, we’ll also check to see if plants are the characterising ingredient.

If they are, we’ll send you certification for both our vegan trademark and our Plant-Based trademark, for the same price! This approach gives you the two trademarks for the price of one, and the flexibility to use whichever trademark you think suits the product’s strategy.

Here’s how we suggest you use them. If your product has a broad target market – such as vegans, flexitarians and meat-reducers – you can lead with our Plant-Based trademark, as this is their preference. This will give consumers the confidence that what they are buying doesn’t contain animal ingredients.

If your target market is predominantly vegan, you can put the vegan trademark on the back of your packaging so vegans can quickly and easily confirm the product is suitable for them.

Essentially, you don’t have to choose whether you want to market your product solely as ‘vegan’ or ‘plant-based’. You can have the best of both worlds!

Summary

• Consumers think that a ‘plant-based’ product is one that contains no meat or dairy. They prefer the term ‘plant-based’ to other terms like ‘vegetarian’/’vegan’.
• The ISO’s draft proposal is similar to the Vegetarian Society Approved vegan trademark, but plants have to be the characterising ingredient and it permits GMOs and animal testing.
• Our Plant-Based trademark creates a plant-based gold standard by not allowing GMOs or animal testing, moving it closer to our vegan trademark.
• You can receive accreditation for both the vegan trademark and the Plant-Based trademark at the same time for the same fee, then choose which one(s) to use. The purpose of this is to help you appeal to the growing market of those wanting to reduce meat/dairy consumption, whilst also reassuring vegans your product is suitable for them.

If you have any questions about our Plant-Based trademark, please contact us at trademarks@vegsoc.org. You can also visit our Plant-Based trademark website.

We’d love to discuss how our Plant-Based trademark could work for you!