The vegan diet has become very popular today. More and more people today adopt a vegan lifestyle for ethical, environmental or health reasons. According to healthy people and people who do not follow any vegan or vegetarian diets, a number of essential nutrients are predicted for those who follow a vegan diet, but if the vegan diet is followed correctly, not gaining excess weight and including improved blood sugar and better heart health. It is possible to gain various health benefits. Nevertheless, it should be kept in mind that applying a diet based only on plant foods increases the risk of nutrient deficiency in some cases.
Veganism is defined as a way of life that basically tries to exclude all kinds of animal exploitation and persecution, whether in food consumed or clothing used, or for any other purpose. For this reason, vegans avoid all kinds of animal products, including meat, eggs and dairy products.
People follow a vegan diet for various reasons. These generally range from ethical principles to environmental concerns. However, there are people who try to be vegan with the idea of being healthy.
In short, vegan diet is against the consumption of not only the meat of bovine or ovine animals, poultry and fish, but also all by-products obtained from these animals.
What is a Vegan Label?
The vegan diet, which is spreading rapidly and finding more fans today, reveals a need for companies that produce in this field to attach vegan labels on their products. Thanks to this label, manufacturers have proved to consumers that their products are produced in accordance with vegan criteria, and consumers can make more conscious choices.
For the vegan label, these products must be tested, analyzed and approved by an internationally accredited, impartial and independent authorized organization.
The vegan certification procedure differs between accredited organizations. For this reason, while some labels are based on the simple statement of the manufacturer, detailed inspections and tests must be carried out in the production facilities for the issuance of some labels. Generally, this second method is preferred. In the labeling process, a detailed list of the production facility, production process, cleaning protocols and any equipment or production line must be prepared, as well as the products and components to be certified.
In fact, in order to give a vegan effect to a product, the manufacturer's facility and products must go through a certification process. After the entire process is successfully completed, approval is given to use the vegan label on the relevant vegan product. These processes are usually completed within a few weeks.
Some manufacturers advertise their products as vegan. However, consumers now expect any product to be externally tested and approved by an independent and impartial third-party lab and a validated vegan label to be used on products to ensure that it is vegan. Thanks to this label, manufacturers show a more transparent approach and consumers are assured that these products are suitable for a vegan lifestyle.
How Is Vegan Certification Performed?
When starting the certification studies, a contract is signed after the facility, products and contents are approved for the certification program. Subsequently, one or more auditors are appointed to perform physical inspection of the facility, depending on the complexity of the production processes applied.
In the vegan certification procedure, the minimum criteria for compliance are the same for all manufacturer companies. In other words, the main criteria are that there is no animal content in the products and the raw materials tested on live animals are not used. However, some manufacturers have additional criteria such as the absence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or palm oil in the products.
Organizations that provide vegan certification services are recognized worldwide, especially in the United States, Canada and Europe, with national and international accreditations. Wherever consumers look for vegan products, they can see a reliable label.
Thanks to vegan certification programs, the vegan labeled product network is growing day by day.
TÜRCERT Technical Control and Certification Inc., accredited by national and international organizations, closely follows the developments in the world in the field of science and technology and has a strong staff that constantly improves itself. It also uses modern test equipment and applies test methods accepted all over the world. TÜRCERT also offers vegan and vegetarian certification services within the scope of testing and certification services it provides to companies from all sectors with this strong infrastructure.