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FOOD LABELLING

GUIDANCE ON THE USE OF THE TERMS


‘VEGETARIAN’ AND ‘VEGAN’
IN FOOD LABELLING

INTRODUCTION

1. The Food Standards Agency is committed to promoting informed


choice. Improving food labelling is one of our priority objectives.

2. There is no definition in law of the terms ‘vegetarian’ or ‘vegan’ either at


the UK or European level. This document identifies the legislation relevant to
the use of these terms, other legislation relevant to ingredient listing of animal
products and provides advice on labelling foods as ‘suitable for vegetarians’ /
‘vegetarian’ or ‘suitable for vegans’ / ’vegan’. This Guidance applies only to
food for human consumption.

3. The purpose of this Guidance is to assist:

• manufacturers, retailers and caterers to use these terms in a


consistent way,

• enforcement authorities to identify misleading labelling, and

• consumers, by encouraging industry to use these terms


consistently.

4. This Guidance should not be taken as an authoritative statement or


interpretation of the law. The opinion of a company’s Home Authority or local
enforcing authority may differ. Only the courts can decide whether, in
particular circumstances, an offence has been committed.

6 April 2006
LEGISLATION RELEVANT TO THE USE OF THE TERMS ‘VEGETARIAN’
AND ‘VEGAN’ IN FOOD LABELLING

5. There are no legal definitions of the terms ‘vegetarian’ or ‘vegan’.

Misleading labelling

Trade Descriptions Act 1968

6. Claims such as, 'suitable for vegetarians' or 'suitable for vegans' are
subject to the general controls in sections 1 to 4 of the Trade Descriptions Act
1968 (prohibition of false or misleading trade descriptions).

Food Safety Act 1990

7. Claims such as, 'suitable for vegetarians' or 'suitable for vegans' are
subject to the general controls in sections 14 and 15 of the of Food Safety Act
1990 (prohibition on selling food not of the nature, substance or quality
demanded and falsely describing or presenting food). The 1990 Act extends
to Great Britain. There is parallel legislation in Northern Ireland.

Article 16 of EC Regulation 178/2002

8. Article 16 of EC Regulation 178/2002 prohibits labelling or other


presentation, which misleads consumers. This is enforced by means of the
General Food Regulations 2004 in Great Britain and parallel legislation in
Northern Ireland.

Use of the ingredients list

9. The terms ‘vegetarian’ and ‘vegan’ in food labelling are used voluntarily
by industry. Where these terms are absent, consumers rely on the list of
ingredients.

10. The Food Labelling Regulations 1996 (as amended) require that
ingredients be listed in descending order of weight. There are certain
ingredients, details of which are given in Regulation 17, which need not be
named. The 1996 Regulations extend to Great Britain; there is similar
legislation in Northern Ireland.

11. The Food Labelling (Amendment) (England) (No.2) Regulations


2004 and similar provisions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland removed
a previous exemption from ingredient listing for compound ingredients that
made up less than 25% of the final product. All ingredients of compound
ingredients used in another product (e.g. sponge fingers in a trifle) are

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required to be listed except for very limited exemptions for some compound
ingredients (Regulation 7(b) and (c)). The exemptions are,

• Where the composition of the compound ingredient is defined in EU


law (e.g. jam and chocolate), the ingredients need not be listed.
• Where the compound ingredient is a food for which an ingredient
list is not required, the ingredients need not be listed.
• A mixture of herbs or spices or both need not be listed individually.
• Ingredients constituting less than 2% of the finished product may be
listed in a different order after the other ingredients.
• The presence of similar or mutually substitutable ingredients could
be indicated by use of "contains....and/or..." in certain
circumstances.

These exemptions do not override the need to label allergenic ingredients and
only apply where an ingredient makes up less than 2% of the final product.

Allergen labelling

12. The Food Labelling (Amendment) (England) (No.2) Regulations


2004 and similar provisions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland require
(from 26 November 2005) foods to be labelled with an indication of the
presence of 12 specific ingredients (or their derivatives) that are known to
cause allergies and intolerances. There are provisional exemptions to this
where derived products are no longer allergenic. Those exemptions of
interest to vegetarian and vegan consumers are:

In alcoholic drinks

• Lysozym (produced from egg) used in wine


• Albumin (produced from egg) used as a fining agent in wine and
cider
• Fish gelatine and isinglass used as fining agents in beer, cider and
wine.
• Whey (from milk) used in distillates for spirits
• Milk (casein) products used as fining agents in cider and wine.

Apart from the two exemptions above that relate to egg, the presence of eggs
must always be labelled on pre-packed foods.

In other foods

• Fish gelatine used as a carrier for vitamin or carotenoid


preparations, and flavours
• Lactitol (from milk) (a sweetener)

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GUIDANCE ON THE USE OF THE TERMS ‘VEGETARIAN’ AND ‘VEGAN’
IN FOOD LABELLING

Vegetarian

13. The term ‘vegetarian’ should not be applied to foods that are, or are
made from or with the aid of products derived from animals that have died,
have been slaughtered, or animals that die as a result of being eaten.
Animals means farmed, wild or domestic animals, including for example,
livestock poultry, game, fish, shellfish, crustacea, amphibians, tunicates,
echinoderms, molluscs and insects.

Vegan

14. The term ‘vegan’ should not be applied to foods that are, or are made
from or with the aid of animals or animal products (including products from
living animals).

15. The table (Annex A) sets out how this Guidance applies in practice.
There are over 50 additives that are sometimes of animal origin, depending
on how they are made. The vegan Guidance requires such additives to be
derived from non-animal sources. However, additives originating from
products of live animals, e.g. those from milk or eggs, would be suitable for
products labelled as vegetarian. The vegetarian and vegan Guidance
excludes products that have been made using processing aids, that are non-
vegetarian or non-vegan respectively, even though they may not be present in
the final foodstuff.

16. Food businesses may find the websites of the Vegetarian and Vegan
Societies helpful in providing information on the origin of additives, processing
aids and flavourings. (Note: The Agency is not responsible for the content of
these websites.) The home pages of the websites of these societies are
www.vegsoc.org and www.vegansociety.com/html.

Cross contamination

17. Manufacturers, retailers and caterers should be able to demonstrate


that foods presented as ‘vegetarian’ or ‘vegan’ have not been contaminated
with non-vegetarian or non-vegan foods during storage, preparation, cooking
or display.

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CONTACT DETAILS FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

18. The address for all correspondence relating to the issues set out in
this advice is:

Consumer Choice, Food Standards and Special Projects Division – Room


115B
Food Standards Agency
Aviation House
125 Kingsway
London
WC2B 6NH

Tel: 020 7276 8167


Fax: 020 7276 8193
E-mail: labelling@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

19. For further information in the devolved administrations, please contact

In Wales: Food Standards Agency Wales


1st Floor, Southgate House
Wood Street
Cardiff
CF10 1EW

Tel: 029 2067 8911


Fax: 029 2067 8918/8919
E-mail: wales@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

In Scotland: Food Standards Agency Scotland


St Magnus House
6th Floor
25 Guild Street
Aberdeen
AB11 6NJ

Tel: 01224 285155


Fax: 01224 285168

In Northern Ireland: Food Standards Agency Northern Ireland


10C Clarendon Road
Belfast
BT1 3BG

Tel: 028 9041 7714


Fax: 028 9041 7726

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ANNEX A

‘VEGETARIAN’ AND ‘VEGAN’ GUIDANCE

Exclusion or A B C D E F G H
Inclusion of A Livestock, Fish, Shellfish, Insects Slaughter by- Products made Processing Products of Products made from
to H from/in Red Crustacea, products (e.g. from A to D aids (made living animals or with the aid of G
products meat, Amphibians, fats and blood) (e.g. gravies, stock from A to including (whether or not in the
Poultry, Tunicates, and gelatine, E) used insects, (e.g. final food) such as
Game etc Echinoderms, additives, whether or milk, eggs, cheese made with
Molluscs flavourings and not in the honey, bee vegetarian rennet,
carriers) final food pollen or yoghurt made
(e.g. waxes) without the use of
isinglass) animal gelatine,
whey, additives,
flavourings and
carriers, (e.g.
lecithins)
Vegetarian x x x x x x √ √
Vegan x x x x x x x x
Key: x = Excluded √ = Included

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