Labelling

1197: 

We are all consumers and we all need help to make the right decisions.  One big help would be clear labelling of products - if something edible is suitable-for-vegans then a label stating as much makes shopping easier.  And incidentally it’s also a great advert for vegan food, although it’s likely to be the very reason they don’t do it!

It’s common in other countries but not in Australia. “Suitable for vegans”.  When I want to buy a food product with several ingredients, I want to be sure it’s free of cruelty-products.  And if it is, then I want to support that food company.

         

Government has legislated that all food-goods must contain ingredients lists.  That’s good.  I go into a food store with my reading glasses in hand, ready to examine the microscopic print in the ingredient-list, to catch any listed animal product.  But it’s not that straight forward.  I have to know that albumen is from eggs, that whey is from milk and gelatine is from hoofs, and there are many more sneaky terms used to hide abattoir items.  If the product doesn’t contain anything objectionable, if it’s ‘vegan’, then I want them to make it clear, and better still put a tick next to the word ‘vegan’, on the front of the packaging.

           

We need good labelling so that we can make informed choices.  If we’re eating food from abattoirs or using the co-products or by-products of animal farming, or ingredients containing these products, it should be clearly stated.  We have the right to know what we are putting into our bodies, or come to that, what product has been used to make the shoes we put on our feet.

Vegans (and that includes me who is too lazy to follow my own advice), should write letters and bombard the product manufacturers with emails, texts, tweets, anything.  And if they do make vegan-suitable products we should be writing to them to say “Thank you”.  We should be telling them that we appreciate their ingredients, and ask them to label their products “vegan friendly”, or some such.

I am lazy.  I’m forgetful too.  Struggling with ‘ingredients’ printed in font size 4, I realise too late I’ve forgotten my glasses, so of course I can’t read the damned ingredients list anyway.  This is where I have to refrain from buying something ... because I’m not sure what’s in it.  The trap, for me, is pretending I didn’t notice what was in fact in-evidence, for all good eyes to see.  It’s the same sort of pretending that I find myself criticising omnivores of doing!