More often than not, consumers cannot easily tell whether a product is vegan or not. This happens because many raw materials, visible and invisible to consumers (but also oftentimes to producers), are used in many production processes as ingredients or as technological aids in one or more stages of production.

 

Invisible raw materials are those which are not legally required to appear on a product label. Further, a consumer has no way to know whether the producer has taken the necessary steps for the avoidance of cross-contamination with animal products during the production of an allegedly vegan product.

 

In addition, a consumer needs training and time to be able to evaluate the ingredients on the labels. Even if a consumer manages to develop the skills needed for the evaluation of an ingredient list, they can ONLY evaluate the visible ingredients of a product; they cannot evaluate the invisible ingredients and the production process.

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The certification procedure fills the gap caused by the above conditions by creating additional value in the relationship of the product with the consumer because:

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• The vegan product is easily recognizable, thus the consumer does not waste valuable time for searching about ingredients.

• Consumers feel that a vegan product is safe, thus a relationship of trust is created between the consumer and the company.

• Certified products enjoy a higher ranking in the mind of consumers.

 

Furthermore, a certification standard mark facilitates the placement of products in distribution channels and stores. This is because every person involved in the distribution chain from the factory to the consumer faces the same difficulty as the consumer in evaluating seemingly vegan products and identifying the vegan ones. Certified vegan products take away the effort, the research, the communications, and the guessing from everyone involved in the distribution channels.

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