A Canadian manufacturer selling into the US, UK, or EU faces an odd situation: the word “vegan” is undefined in all of them, while the rules around what else you can print on the package are getting stricter by the year.
Those two facts pull in opposite directions, and the second one is moving.
The definition gap is universal
Canada has no federal standard defining “vegan” on a food label. Neither does the EU or the UK — there is no legal definition of either “vegetarian” or “vegan” at UK or EU level for food.
What exists instead are general prohibitions on misleading information. In the EU, the Food Information Regulation requires that information about food not mislead consumers about its properties or the presence of particular ingredients. That’s the mechanism a vegan claim is judged against — not a defined standard.
The closest thing to an agreed definition is voluntary. The European Vegetarian Union, which has been lobbying for a legal definition since 2008, defines vegan food as containing nothing of animal origin at any stage of production and processing, explicitly including ingredients, processing aids, and other substances — with additives, flavourings, enzymes, and processing agents such as albumen and gelatine used to filter wine and beer named as examples.
That definition is worth reading closely, because it’s the same standard we apply: processing aids count, whether or not they survive into the finished product.
What is changing: naming rules
The activity isn’t around defining “vegan.” It’s around restricting what plant-based products can otherwise be called.
In October 2025, the European Parliament voted to restrict traditional meat-related terms on plant-based products. On 5 March 2026, trilogue negotiators reached a provisional agreement banning 31 meat-related terms from plant-based and cell-cultured product labels and marketing.
The restricted list covers two categories: animal species names — beef, veal, pork, poultry, chicken, turkey, duck, goose, lamb, mutton, ovine, goat — and meat cut terminology, including steak, bacon, breast, thigh, drumstick, loin, ribs, T-bone, ribeye, sirloin, tenderloin, rump, shank, shoulder, chop and wing.
Notably, “burger,” “sausage” and “nuggets” survived the negotiation.
Two important caveats. This is a provisional political agreement, not final law. And it applies to the EU — but the UK Vegetarian Society has warned that the restrictions could directly affect UK products exported into EU markets and may influence UK domestic standards in future.
For a Canadian exporter, the practical read: if you sell a plant-based product into the EU with a species name or cut name on the front of pack, watch this closely. The naming may need to change even though the product doesn’t.
Certification marks are regional
The other thing that doesn’t travel cleanly is the mark itself.
Different marks dominate different markets. V-Label is the most recognized certification across continental Europe. In the United States, the Certified Vegan logo from the Vegan Awareness Foundation is the most widely recognized. Canadian shoppers encounter a mix.
Retailer and distributor expectations follow that regional recognition. A buyer in Germany may specifically ask about V-Label; a US natural channel buyer may ask about Certified Vegan.
[RICHARD / ELANA: this section needs VegeCert’s actual position on international recognition — whether the mark is accepted by retailers outside Canada, whether there’s any reciprocity or mutual recognition arrangement with other certifiers, and what we tell exporting clients today. I don’t want to overstate or understate it.]
What actually transfers
Here’s the useful part: the underlying verification work transfers completely, even when the mark doesn’t.
Whatever certification you hold or pursue in an export market, the substance is the same set of questions:
- Full ingredient and sub-ingredient disclosure
- Supplier declarations for ambiguous-source inputs
- Processing aid documentation — fining agents, filtration media, enzymes, release agents
- Equipment, sanitation, and changeover records
- Facility assessment
A manufacturer who has assembled that documentation for one certification has assembled it for any of them. The marks differ; the evidence doesn’t.
That’s worth knowing before you conclude that exporting means starting over. It usually means submitting the same file to a different body.
Practical steps for exporters
Check your front-of-pack naming against the EU list if you sell or plan to sell there. Species names and cut terminology are the exposure. A reformulation isn’t required — a rename might be.
Ask your distributor which mark their buyers expect. This is a commercial question with a regional answer, and your distributor knows it better than you do.
Keep your documentation portable. Maintain supplier declarations and processing aid records in a form you can hand to any certifier, not just your current one.
Watch the EU process. The March agreement is provisional. The final text and implementation timeline are what matter, and both are still moving.
Exporting, or planning to? Tell us your markets and we’ll walk through what your documentation would need to cover.
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