Multiple symbols have been developed to represent vegetarianism and

veganism Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet (nutrition), diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is kn ...

. Several are used on food packaging, including voluntary labels such as the

Vegan Society Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. D ...

trademark or the

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

(with support of the

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

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

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

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.

Vegetarian symbols

Indian vegetarian mark

Packaged food and

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

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 is a diet that abstains from the consumption of meat as well as eggs, while still consuming dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, ...

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, eggs. The term is common in India, but not usual elsewhere. In the general ...

.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.

Vegan symbols

Vegan Trademark

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

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 November, ...

(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.

Enclosed V

The enclosed v (modeled after the

enclosed A Anarchists have employed certain symbols for their cause, including most prominently the circle-A and the black flag. Anarchist cultural symbols have been prevalent in popular culture since around the turn of the 21st century, concurrent wit ...

symbol) is a popular vegan symbol, especially on

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...

s where it is represented by the Ⓥ symbol of the

Enclosed Alphanumerics Enclosed Alphanumerics is a Unicode block of 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 Multilingual Plane, ...

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 (embryo ...

emoji 🌱 is sometimes used to symbolize veganism or vegan products.

Veganarchy symbol

The Veganarchy 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 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 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 (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. 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, ...

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 equality, 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 spectral colors of the visible light spectrum. The LGBT flag introduced in 1978 is the most recogniz ...

, 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.

Gallery

References

External links

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