You’ve likely seen, or even eaten, a vegan sausage roll from Greggs. The word ‘vegan’ is right there in the title, unambiguous and straightforward. I’d also be willing to bet you’ve seen ‘plant-based’ sausage rolls elsewhere, or perhaps a ‘plant-based’ burger.
You may have found yourself asking the same question I’ve asked myself over the past few years: is there a difference between something labelled ‘plant-based’ and something labelled ‘vegan’? Or is this all just semantics?
Vegan is a word with a lot of history – 80 years’ worth, to be exact. The Vegan Society was founded in 1944 by a small group of non-dairy vegetarians led by Donald Watson. They needed a new name to differentiate themselves from vegetarians, and after some deliberation they settled on ‘vegan’.
Fast-forward to today and the word is widely understood, not just within the UK but across the globe. Vegan is used to describe people, products, brands and more.
The ‘plant-based’ alternative
The phrase ‘plant-based’ was coined by Dr T Colin Campbell in the early 1980s. Dr Campbell wanted an “objective, scientifically valid” phrase to describe a diet with no animal products, but one which avoided the “charged atmosphere” of using the word ‘vegetarian’.
The usage of ‘plant-based’ has evolved over the past 40 years and is now used to describe food, people, fashion and cosmetics. Its purpose has also changed slightly, from being used to describe a vegetarian diet without saying ‘vegetarian’, to describing a vegan diet without having to use the word ‘vegan’.
The problem for consumers is that there is no widely agreed definition for ‘plant-based’ in the same way that there is for ‘vegan’.
Plant-based is most often used as a synonym for vegan, but not always. Non-vegan menu items, beauty products and foods often carry the ‘plant-based’ label.
The inherent ambiguousness of a poorly defined phrase may be appealing to those who want to capitalise on veganism’s boom in popularity, but without the deeper ethical commitments.
For those brands that do operate in the wider plant-forward space, there is a concern that non-vegans are put off by the word ‘vegan’. They worry ‘vegan’ is too polarising and ‘plant-based’ is a safe bet.
Research from The Vegan Society has found that brands are making these labelling decisions based on working assumptions, rather than solid evidence. This research also found some brands are using ‘plant-based’ as a temporary measure until a better label comes along, acknowledging the problems associated with using such a loosely defined term.
Trust and transparency
Most brands that were involved in this research acknowledged that a ‘plant-based-plus-vegan’ labelling system was best as they wanted to use appealing, but also accurate, language.
As unnecessary as it may be to use multiple ways of saying the same thing on product packaging, using the ‘vegan’ label, such as the Vegan Trademark, will always be important for consumer trust and simplicity. The Vegan Society’s research also found 69% of consumers were totally confident that a product would contain no animal products if labelled ‘vegan’ compared to just 32% if labelled ‘plant-based’.
Regardless of where you stand on the plant-based versus vegan debate, clarity for the consumer should always be a priority. It’s also important to consider whether multiple labels are adding value or simply risk confusing the consumer.
It’s hard to say if plant-based and vegan mean the same thing when one term is widely understood and the other is deliberately ambiguous. Perhaps we should simplify things: if your product is vegan, say it’s vegan.
Alexander Huntley is research and impact manager at The Vegan Society
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