Multiple

symbol A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...

s have been developed to represent

lacto-vegetarianism A lacto-vegetarian (sometimes referred to as a lactarian; from the Latin root lact-, ''milk'') diet abstains from the consumption of meat as well as eggs, while still consuming dairy products such as milk, cheese (without animal rennet i.e., fro ...

and

veganism Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a vega ...

. Several are used on food

packaging Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be described as a coo ...

, including voluntary labels such as

The Vegan Society The Vegan Society is a registered charity and the oldest vegan organization in the world, founded in the United Kingdom in 1944 by Donald Watson, Elsie Shrigley, George Henderson and his wife Fay Henderson among others. History In Novembe ...

trademark or the

V-Label The European Vegetarian Union (EVU) is a non-profit, non-governmental umbrella organisation for vegan and vegetarian societies and groups in Europe. The union works in the areas of vegetarianism, nutrition, health, consumer protection, climate ...

(with support of the

European Vegetarian Union The European Vegetarian Union (EVU) is a non-profit, non-governmental umbrella organisation for vegan and vegetarian societies and groups in Europe. The union works in the areas of vegetarianism, nutrition, health, consumer protection, climat ...

) as well as the vegetarian and non-vegetarian marks mandated by the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n government. Symbols may also be used by members of the vegetarian and vegan communities to represent their identities, and in the course of

animal rights activism The animal rights movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that advocates an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, ...

Vegetarian symbols

Indian vegetarian mark

Packaged food and

toothpaste Toothpaste is a paste or gel dentifrice that is used with a toothbrush to clean and maintain the aesthetics of Human tooth, teeth. Toothpaste is used to promote oral hygiene: it is an abrasive that aids in removing dental plaque and food from th ...

products sold in

are required to be labelled with a mandatory mark in order to be distinguished between

lacto-vegetarian A lacto-vegetarian (sometimes referred to as a lactarian; from the Latin root lact-, ''milk'') diet abstains from the consumption of meat as well as Egg as food, eggs, while still consuming dairy products such as milk, cheese (without animal renn ...

and

non-vegetarian Non-vegetarian food (in Indian English sometimes shortened to non-veg food) contains meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, or the flesh of any other animal), and sometimes, Egg as food, eggs. The term is common in India, but not usual elsewhere. In ...

.Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. 'Food Safety and standards (Packaging and Labelling) regulations, 2011.'
/ref>
/ref> The symbol is in effect following the ''Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Act of 2006'', and received a mandatory status after the framing of the respective regulations (''Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulation'') in 2011. According to the law, vegetarian food should be identified by a green symbol and non-vegetarian food with a brown symbol. They are defined as: "Vegetarian food must have a symbol of a green color-filled circle inside a square with a green outline prominently displayed on the package, contrasting against the background on the principal display panel, in close proximity to name or brand name of the food." "Non-vegetarian food (any food which contains whole or part of any animal including birds, marine animals, eggs, or products of any animal origin as an ingredient, excluding honey, milk or milk products), must have a symbol of a brown color-filled circle inside a square with a brown outline prominently displayed on the package, contrasting against the background on the principal display panel, in close proximity to the name or brand name of the food." In 2021, FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) adopted a new symbol for non-vegetarian food items due to concerns that the combination of the old symbols were difficult for people with colour blindness to distinguish. The new symbol is that of a brown color-filled triangle inside a square with a brown outline. In September 2021, the FSSAI announced adoption of the new vegan symbol.

V-Label

The

, a V with a leaf, originated with the

. The V-Label is a standardised international vegan and vegetarian label supported by the EVU with the aim of easy identification of vegan and vegetarian products and services.

Vegetarian Society approved trademark

The Vegetarian Society Approved trademark is the world’s first vegetarian accreditation symbol and appears on thousands of products worldwide. It was created in 1969 by the

Vegetarian Society The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom (VSUK) is a British Registered charity in England, registered charity. It campaigns for dietary changes, licenses Vegetarian Society Approved trademarks for Vegetarianism, vegetarian and Veganism, v ...

who were established in 1847 and invented the word "vegetarian". Any product displaying the Vegetarian Society Approved vegetarian trademark has been independently checked by the Vegetarian Society and meets these criteria: * Contains no ingredient made from animal body parts * Only free-range eggs are used * Measures in place to avoid cross-contamination during production * GMO-free * No animal testing carried out or commissioned.

Vegan symbols

Vegan Trademark

The Vegan Trademark, with its iconic sunflower, is an internationally recognised standard from

(who coined the term 'vegan'). It certifies products with the aim of easy identification of vegan products. Launched in 1990, it was the first vegan verification scheme. Any product displaying The Vegan Society's Vegan Trademark has been independently checked by The Vegan Society met these criteria: * The manufacture and/or development of the product, and its ingredients, must not involve or have involved, the use of any animal product, by-product or derivative. * The development and/or manufacture of the product, and its ingredients, must not involve or have involved, testing of any sort on animals conducted at the initiative of the company or on its behalf, or by parties over whom the company has effective control. * The development and/or production of GMOs must not have involved animal genes or animal-derived substances. Products put forward for trademark registration that contains or may contain any GMOs must be labelled as such. Over 70,000 products are registered with the Vegan Trademark.

Enclosed V

The enclosed v (modeled after the

enclosed A Anarchists have employed certain symbols for their cause since the 19th century, including most prominently the #Circle-A, circle-A and the Anarchist symbolism#Black flag, black flag. Anarchist cultural symbols have become more prevalent in pop ...

symbol) is a popular vegan symbol, especially on

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

s where it is represented by the Ⓥ symbol of the

Enclosed Alphanumerics Enclosed Alphanumerics is a Unicode block of Typography, typographical symbols of an alphanumeric within a circle, a bracket or other not-closed enclosure, or ending in a full stop. It is currently fully allocated. Within the Basic Multi ...

Unicode block A Unicode block is one of several contiguous ranges of numeric character codes (code points) of the Unicode character set that are defined by the Unicode Consortium for administrative and documentation purposes. Typically, proposals such as the ...

. This lowercase "V" inside a circle is not used to label products as vegan nor should be relied upon to determine if a product is vegan. A kosher organization (Vaad Hoeir of St. Louis) owns and uses a US trademark (certification mark) consisting of an uppercase V inside a circle.

Seedling emoji

On internet forums and social networks, the

seedling A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embry ...

emoji An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis; , ) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram, or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from type ...

🌱 is sometimes used to symbolize veganism or vegan products.

Veganarchy symbol

The

Veganarchy Total liberation, also referred to as total liberation ecology or veganarchism, is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that combines anarchism with a commitment to Animal rights movement, animal and earth liberation. Whilst m ...

symbol, first introduced in print in Brian A. Dominick's ''Animal Liberation and Social Revolution'' pamphlet in 1995, combines the Circle-V with the Circle-A of

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

symbolism.Dominick, Brian. ''Animal Liberation and Social Revolution: A vegan perspective on anarchism or an anarchist perspective on veganism'', Critical Mess Media, 1995.

Vegan flag

The vegan flag was designed in 2017 by a network group of graphic designers and activists from several countries. The group was opened by Gad Hakimi, a vegan activist and designer from

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. who intended it to be a

Civil flag A civil flag is a version of the national flag that is flown by civilians on nongovernmental installations or craft. The use of civil flags was more common in the past to denote buildings or ships not crewed by the military. In some countries, t ...

to represent veganism. The flag consists of three blue and green triangles forming the letter V, the first letter in the word "vegan". Originally, some members of the group suggested that animals should be featured on the flag, with red colours featuring prominently to symbolize the blood of slaughtered animals. However, the group eventually chose to make the flag about human–animal respect, not about animals themselves. Inspired by the LGBT

rainbow flag A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of the colors of the rainbow. The designs differ, but many of the colors are based on the seven spectral colors of the visible light spectrum. History In the 18th century, American Revolutionary ...

, the flag was created in hopes of uniting animal rights organizations and activists. The colours white, green, and blue were chosen to represent the natural habitats of animals: sky, land, and sea. The letter V stands for Vegan, and is an inverted pyramid intended to symbolize the ability to do the impossible. V-LABEL LOGO vegan pfade-page-001

V-Label The international

supported by the

is an internationally recognised and protected trademark for the labelling of vegetarian and vegan products.

Vegetarian Society Approved vegan trademark

The Vegetarian Society Approved vegan trademark was established in 2017 and appears on thousands of products worldwide. Any product displaying the Vegetarian Society Approved vegan trademark has been independently checked by the

and has met these criteria: * Contains no animal-derived ingredients * Measures in place to avoid cross-contamination during production * GMO-free * No animal testing carried out or commissioned. In 2022 McDonald's launched their

McPlant The McPlant is a Veggie burger, vegetarian (and in some regions Veganism, vegan) burger sold by the fast-food chain McDonald's in several European countries. In 2021, McDonald's partnered with Beyond Meat, a Los Angeles–based producer of plant- ...

burger across the UK, accredited with the Vegetarian Society Approved vegan trademark.

Vegan food regulations in India

In 2022, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has put in place regulations for vegan food products within the country. The new rules clearly define what constitutes vegan food and how brands can label it. The logo was designed by a Bengaluru-based, Food Science and Nutrition college student-Kruti Manish Rathore.

References

External links

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India
{{India certification marks Lists of symbols Vegetarianism Veganism Political symbols