Most vegan certifiers offer one mark. We offer two, and the second one gets less attention than it deserves.
Partly that’s because vegan is the growth story. Partly it’s because “vegetarian” sounds self-explanatory — no meat, done.
It isn’t self-explanatory, and that’s exactly the problem.
Vegetarian is the least defined term on a Canadian label
Neither “vegan” nor “vegetarian” has a federal definition in Canadian food labelling. But vegan at least has a broadly shared meaning in practice. Vegetarian doesn’t.
Different manufacturers, all acting in good faith, include or exclude:
- Eggs — most include, some don’t
- Dairy — most include
- Honey — usually included
- Gelatin — sometimes overlooked entirely
- Animal rennet — very frequently overlooked
- Fish and fish-derived ingredients — occasionally included, which most vegetarians would object to
- Carmine and other insect-derived colourings — rarely considered
- Shellac — almost never considered
A shopper reading “vegetarian” on a package has no way to know which of these the manufacturer meant. Two products carrying the same word can differ substantially.
What our vegetarian designation actually permits
We publish the line rather than leaving it to interpretation. Our vegetarian standard follows our vegan standard, with four categories permitted as exceptions:
- Dairy
- Eggs
- Bee products
- Shellac
Everything else prohibited under the vegan standard remains prohibited under the vegetarian one.
That’s a stricter definition than many manufacturers apply internally, and the consequences are worth spelling out.
What stays prohibited
Gelatin. Derived from the collagen of cattle, pigs, or horses. Prohibited under both marks. This alone disqualifies a large number of products currently marketed as vegetarian — marshmallows, gummies, some yogurts, capsule shells, and gelatin-clarified juices.
Animal rennet. Used in some cheese production. Microbial and fermentation-produced rennet is standard now, but animal rennet persists in certain cheeses, including some traditional and imported varieties. A cheese product is not automatically vegetarian.
Fish and fish-derived ingredients. Anchovy in Worcestershire and Caesar dressing, fish sauce, fish gelatin, isinglass in beverages, marine-sourced omega-3. Many products marketed as vegetarian contain these.
Carmine and cochineal. Insect-derived colouring. Prohibited under both marks.
Slaughter by-products. Tallow, lard, and animal-derived stearates, glycerine, and fatty acids.
Lanolin-derived ingredients, including most vitamin D3.
The net effect: our vegetarian mark is a meaningfully stronger claim than the unverified word on a package.
Why this is commercially useful
The obvious case: a product that can’t be vegan may still be certifiable.
A bakery using butter and eggs. A confectioner using honey. A supplement using a dairy-derived ingredient. None of those can carry a vegan mark. All of them may qualify for a vegetarian one — and a verified vegetarian claim is worth considerably more than an unverified one, for the same reason a verified vegan claim is.
The less obvious case: it clarifies what you’re claiming. If you currently print “vegetarian” based on an internal definition, certification replaces a claim nobody can check with one backed by a published standard. That’s a straightforward upgrade for a manufacturer already doing the work.
And for manufacturers with a mixed range, carrying both marks on the appropriate products is clearer to shoppers than applying one word inconsistently.
The pareve comparison
Worth noting for anyone using kosher symbols as a shortcut.
A pareve hechsher means neither meat nor dairy. It permits eggs, honey, and fish — kosher fish is pareve.
Our vegetarian designation permits eggs, dairy, bee products and shellac, and prohibits fish.
So the two standards overlap without matching. A pareve product may contain anchovy; a VegeCert vegetarian product may contain dairy. Neither is a substitute for the other, which we covered in more depth in our post on kosher and vegan standards.
Which mark should your product carry?
The practical test:
Vegan if the product contains no animal-derived material at all, including processing aids.
Vegetarian if it contains dairy, eggs, honey, beeswax, or shellac — but nothing else on the prohibited list.
Neither, yet, if it contains gelatin, rennet, fish-derived ingredients, carmine, or slaughter by-products. Those usually have substitutes, and reformulation is often less work than manufacturers assume.
If you’re unsure which applies, send us the formulation. Working out which designation fits is part of the review, not something you need to determine before applying.
Not sure which mark fits your product? Send us your formulation and we’ll tell you.
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