We cannot be complacent consumers

As a vegan of 16 years standing I feel that I am attuned when shopping and eating. I am an organised shopper and I know which products are vegan. Mind you, the job is made a lot easier when shopping at my local Co-op as they label their own-brand products that are suitable for vegans. But even the most attuned shopper needs to be aware. A few months ago I bought a packet of Ritz biscuits, which I have eaten ever since I checked them out with the manufacturers by telephone several years ago. After tucking into most of the box I was idly reading the labelling, only to see that the last item on the ingredients list was lactose! Panic set in. How long had this milk derivative been in the biscuits? How many years had I been eating them or, worse, passing them off to friends as being vegan?

I wrote to the manufacturers Jacobs, who were sympathetic (enclosing a £1 voucher with their reply), but rather vague. "Lactose has been in the product for many years," they said, "albeit at a very low level. We have only recently become aware of its presence and amended the ingredients at the first opportunity. Now that we are aware of its presence, we have taken steps to remove it. However, lactose will still be shown on the ingredients list as there will be a continuing dairy cross-contamination risk." Apparently the "cross-contamination" arises from the use of the same production line for biscuits made with and without cheese.

All this goes to show that we cannot be complacent when shopping, although things have changed a great deal since the early 1980s when I first became vegetarian. In those days the majority of biscuits, both savoury and sweet, contained animal fat. Many vegetarians, myself included, wrote letters to the manufacturers and now animal fats have been largely replaced by vegetable fats. Now vegans must fight to remove the ubiquitous whey that is found in many biscuit and bakery products (whey is a by-product of the cheese-making process, and is used as a cheap thickening ingredient), so the letter writing has to continue.

The major supermarkets are trying very hard to accommodate us. All of them now use vegetarian symbols to indicate which of their own brand products are suitable for vegetarians, as do some manufacturers. Even better, 2,000 products now carry The Vegetarian Society's seedling symbol, which employs exacting standards; for example, any eggs used must be free range. Likewise, The Vegan Society's sunflower symbol is now used by almost 80 companies. However, use of these symbols requires payment of an annual licence fee, so only those companies which are committed to their vegetarian and vegan customers will use them.

I have recently been in contact with Sainsbury's about their Fruit Digestives that I sampled while visiting Shropshire. All evidence on the packet suggested that they were vegan, and the good news is that they are. The bad news is that they are only available in stores in the midlands, the north or London! Sainsbury's in-store help desk can indicate the availability of a product in that store and in all their other stores in the country - so get out there and ask for more vegan products to be made available. The really good news is that Sainsbury's are in the process of labelling their own-brand products that are suitable for vegans, as the Co-op already does, so again, let's badger the rest of the supermarkets to follow suit. At least each supermarket produces a list of their own-brand products that are suitable for vegetarians and vegans which they will send you on request.

As vegetarians in the UK now number 3 millions, and vegans 1/4 million, we are an important part of the consumer society and we should make our voices heard. Consumer pressure does work, but you need to go out and make it work for you. Make yourself heard, make enquiries, and remember to congratulate good practice as well.

Tracy Lean, September 2001

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This page created 22 September 2001 by Paul Appleby.