If you are vegan or simply concerned about animal welfare, it is surprisingly difficult to buy your securities. There are many certification systems to choose from, but unlike food safety or organic products, there are no government certification systems or regulations for labeling vegan products or products that have not been tested on animals. There aren’t even legal definitions for marketing terms like vegan, vegan friendly, vegetarian, and no animal ingredients. That means those terms are meaningless at best and green looking at worst. So if you value animal welfare, you need to be aware of third-party certification labels.
Vegan versus cruelty-free
The first thing to know is that vegan and cruelty-free are not the same. Vegan means that a product does not contain any ingredients of animal origin. Cruelty-free means that the product was not tested on animals during development. While this technically means that a vegan product could have been tested on animals and vice versa, in practice most vegan certifications also require products to be cruelty-free and many products labeled cruelty-free are also vegan.
You can also see products labeled “humane.” Products and foods with humane labels do include animal parts or ingredients of animal origin. Humane labels mean that the animals were raised humanely before slaughter or other use. Standards of care vary widely between these certifications.
The Vegan Society
The Vegan Society was founded in 1944 in Europe to promote dairy-free vegetarianism, and soon after the term “vegan” was coined. They established the Vegan Brand in 1990 to certify that a product is free of animal ingredients. Today, nearly 60,000 individual products are certified, including cosmetics, clothing, food, and household items. Products with the Vegan Trademark brand of sunflower grown from a letter V do not include any ingredients derived from the animal kingdom; it did not involve animal testing; and does not include any GMOs.
Vegan action
Vegan Action, an American non-profit organization (sometimes called the Vegan Awareness Foundation) was established to eliminate animal suffering, reduce environmental impacts, and improve human health through a vegan diet. For more than 25 years they have certified products through the Vegan Certification Campaign with a letter V within a heart logo. More than 1,000 companies have certified products that do not contain animal products or by-products and that have not been tested on animals through this system.
Vegetarian Society
The Vegetarian Society, based in the United Kingdom, is an information center for vegetarianism. In addition to its “cooking school” with online classes, the Society offers two trademarks: Approved by the Vegetarian Society Y Vegan approved by the Vegetarian Society. Trademark accreditation approved by the Vegetarian Society involves independent verification of the production method and ingredients. Trademarks can be applied to food, beverages, cosmetics, household and cleaning products, health products, pet food, and more. Unlike many other certifications, the Vegetarian Society certifies entire restaurants and pubs.
Jumping bunny
Leaping Bunny is one of the largest and most trusted cruelty-free certification systems and is backed by PETA. The system is administered by several organizations: Leaping Bunny through CCIC (a coalition of eight national animal protection groups, including the Humane Society) administers the logo in the US and Canada. In the EU, Australia and other parts of the world, two organizations, Cruelty Free International and Choose Cruelty Free have merged. As a result, there are several slightly different but authentic logos. Unfortunately, shoppers will see a variety of rabbit related logos that have no association with Leaping Bunny or any certification system. Consequently, Leaping Bunny requires some caution on the part of the consumer.
The Leaping Bunny standard is published transparently in its entirety on the website and applies to entire companies rather than individual products. It does not allow testing or commissioning of animals for all ingredients in cosmetic and household products.
Not all Leaping Bunny certified products will display the logo. To confirm that a cruelty-free product without the logo is actually certified, see the full list of certifications on the Leaping Bunny website.
American Vegetarian Association
Since 1999, the American Vegetarian Association has existed primarily as a certification system to confirm that food products, skincare, vitamins, and supplements are vegetarian (may have eggs or dairy) or vegan (no animal by-products) and not they have been tested on animals. Its triangular logo certifies individual products rather than companies. In contrast to certification, AVA RECOMMENDED endorsement is a marketing tool used for restaurants and merchandise and is not meaningful.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is well known for its activism for animal rights. Its Bunny Free application allows you to search for companies by name and tells you if they perform tests on animals. You can request a cruelty-free shopping guide from Bunny Free on their website. They also maintain multiple databases of companies that do and do not test on animals, as well as companies that work on regulatory changes and other animal welfare issues.
The Beauty Without Bunnies cruelty-free certification is available for personal care, pet care, vitamins, and household products. Companies can be certified under one of two designations: Global Animal Test-Free Y Global Animal Test-Free and Vegan.
The Beauty Without Bunnies cruelty-free logo of a pink-eared rabbit indicates that a company has registered as cruelty-free with PETA, but does not require as much documentation as Leaping Bunny. (An older version of the logo has heart-shaped ears.)
The PETA approved vegan logo is specifically for clothing and accessories. It can be applied to both the individual product and the entire product line of the company. Items with this logo do not include any live or dead animal material, the company reported.
