There was a years-long debate in regards to the use of the terms “vegan” versus “plant-based” on food labels. With each terms getting used interchangeably by big brands, the seek for animal-free products has develop into increasingly confusing. 

While a vegan label has a transparent definition of what’s excluded from food products (any ingredient that comes from an animal), plant-based has various interpretations and definitions depending on who you ask. The term has develop into a buzzword due to its positive association with health and wellness, and it’s now getting used on all forms of products—animal-free or not. While some products labeled plant-based are also vegan, there are brands and restaurants that use plant-based as a synonym for flexitarianism, meaning they emphasize plants but can also incorporate meat, dairy, and eggs. To be clear, this is just not plant-based. But with the food industry now using the 2 terms interchangeably, the query becomes which one ought to be officially adopted to explain food that’s free from animal products.

Miyoko Schinner, vegan activist and founding father of vegan cheese and butter company Miyoko’s Creamery, has long been urging the industry to officially adopt the vegan label. “Veganism is really phenomenal (yup, I even have that tattooed on my arm!)—it’s in regards to the power we’ve, as individuals, to make change on the earth for animals, people, and the planet,” Schinner says on LinkedIn. “Veganism is gorgeous, sexy, [and] exciting.”

Meanwhile, Lisa Feria, CEO of enterprise capital firm Stray Dog Capital and an investor in Miyoko’s Creamery, is a powerful proponent of using the term plant-based. Feria believes that using “vegan” alienates a big section of potential customers and creates a barrier to the widespread adoption of foods which might be higher for the planet. “I think the term plant-based carries the broadest appeal and is well understood,” Feria tells VegNews. “The term vegan still, unfortunately, has some negative connotations that expand beyond food consumption. Vegans typically live their lives looking for non-animal-based products basically. Flexitarians may need a plant-centric meal for dinner.”

Miyoko’s Creamery

Although the vegan term might still be recovering from a negative connotation of extremism, Schinner says brands ought to be working to encourage and entice consumers via marketing as a substitute of shying away from the term. “The food industry adopted the term [plant-based] out of fear of turning off consumers with vegan,” Schinner says. “A number of consumer studies were even done, showing slight preference for plant-based, but in addition more confusion around it … In stark contrast, nonetheless, organic Google search terms exceedingly favors vegan over plant-based.”

Why is “plant-based” so confusing?

If the industry were to adopt the plant-based label, it’s especially essential that the label is obvious and transparent in order that customers could make quick and informed decisions. “It’s about having the buyer self-select a product or category quickly without tapping into potential negative associations that don’t have anything to do with the food product they’re buying,” Feria says. 

Based on a 2020 survey conducted by The Vegan Society on public perception of the 2 terms, roughly 64 percent of the 1,000 participants believed plant-based means the product comprises no animal products. “Plant-based, as is mostly used, implies that it doesn’t contain the identical foremost ingredient because the product they’re replacing (animal-based meats, or dairy, for instance),” Feria says. “It’s true some brands have decided to call products plant-based when the second ingredient is an animal-based ingredient.”

But Feria says there are methods to make use of the perceivably more positive plant-based term on the front of a food package to entice more consumers, while giving vegans reassurance on the back. “A clever tactic we’ve seen a few of our firms use is to acquire the vegan qualification logo and place it on the back of the pack next to other logos (‘GMO free’ or ‘B Corp’ or ‘100% Organic,’ for instance) that give additional context cues to those consumers after they are searching for final confirmation that the product has what they need and never what they don’t,” Feria says. “Consumers are used to turning across the packaging to search out out more info—our job is to make sure the front of the back helps them pick it up, to self-select a pack that communicates the important thing advantages they’re looking for. Once they pick up the pack, they add what is required to leap to the subsequent level (going into the cart)”

Beyond Meat

How do you market animal-free food?

Even with each terms currently getting used interchangeably, the animal-free grocery store has exploded in popularity, and so the query becomes: What’s the perfect technique to market this food to make sure its future growth? Schinner believes it’s the role of selling to vary the perceived “baggage” across the term vegan, especially since consumer perception is undergoing rapid change with increasing acceptance of vegan food. 

“Marketing is commonly a rearview mirror, taking a look at the recent past and current state of consumer mindset, which works if you’re selling a product that’s been around for a very long time, but doesn’t work as well in a nascent category that’s reinventing itself consistently (just like the plant-based category),” Schinner says. “I also imagine that, greater than ever, consumers are searching for leadership, direction, even inspiration from brands. As an alternative of working in fear of frightening people away, shouldn’t brands work quite to encourage and entice them, and show them how the world may very well be? Isn’t the role of selling to assist people imagine, to ignite in them a passion that they could not have felt before? The word vegan can try this.” 

Many brands identical to Miyoko’s would agree. These firms have embraced the term vegan because they don’t imagine in watering down their mission with the plant-based label simply because it might be a better term for consumers to digest. British vegan food company VFC, which makes a speciality of ever-popular vegan fried chicken, actually banned the term plant-based. “There may be a really welcome—and apparently unstoppable—surge in the expansion of vegan foods. And with that comes a variety of ideas and marketing tactics, and plenty of different conversations. Most food firms use the term ‘plant-based.’ It’s gentler, perhaps, and plays to the various essential health facets of eating animal-free foods. That is an excellent thing. But it surely is just not our thing,” VFC explains on its website. “Our stance on the language we use goes way beyond the health facets of our product. We wish to make use of our food as a start line for an even bigger conversation in regards to the rights of animals, the health of our planet, and the way our food decisions impact these.”

VFC

Despite Feria’s preference for plant-based, she says these mission-driven firms should keep doing what they’re doing. “There are some brands whose image, branding, and communication is about being vegan. They’re communicating that they stand for the entire vegan ethos—to cut back or eliminate animal suffering through all of the actions they do,” Feria says. “If the corporate’s lifeblood and fervour stems from veganism, then it ought to be advertised as such to their consumers, who wish to buy into that exact mission.” 

Vegan food with a mission

Ultimately, if the food industry doesn’t wish to alienate consumers, businesses and types must get on the identical page, whether or not they are advocating for the vegan mission or not. “Clarity and consistency can only help with consumer selection and alternative. I’d prefer to see using the name plant-based to mean the identical across the board,” Feria says. “The quicker consumers can discover what they need (or not want), the quicker the corporate can shift to convincing them with their product characteristics (price, health, texture, taste, etc.). And with the plant-based category growing so quickly, that may only assist in its expansion.”  

Yet, perhaps the mission of all firms making animal-free foods ought to be to embrace the term vegan as if it’s going to save lots of the world because in response to many, including Schinner, it’s. “For those who can imagine a world without cruelty and suffering, that will be a vegan one,” Schinner says. “And I can truthfully say that I even have never frightened anyone by means of this beautiful word. My job is to vary its perception, rid it of any baggage (which isn’t as great as [consumer packaged goods] firms imagine), and provides folks FOMO. The long run of language is ours to define.” 

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