The Certified Vegan Logo Celebrates 20 Years of Helping Consumers

If you’re plant-based, you probably spend a lot of time in the grocery store scanning for products labeled with the handy certified “V” logo. Today marks the twenty years since the non-profit group Vegan Action introduced the “certified vegan” logo. Three students founded the group at The University of California who wanted to create a logo that would make it easier to identify vegan products for shoppers everywhere. Now, twenty years later, there are 200 brands and 10,000+ products with the Certified Vegan logo.

The group set the gold standard criteria for vegan certification, which is a process that requires the manufacturer to provide documents and undergo annual reviews demonstrating that the product contains no animal ingredients or testing or animal-derived GMO’s.

Following a vegan lifestyle goes beyond avoiding non-vegan foods. Animal products can turn up in expected places, like household cleaners, health and beauty products, furniture, and clothing. Luckily, non-food products can also be given the Certified Vegan’s label seal of approval, making “choosing vegan” as easy as possible.

After twenty years of certifying products that meet their gold-star criteria, Vegan Action has made it so that vegans no longer have to rely on over-priced specialty stores to do their weekly shopping. Thanks to the certified vegan label, vegan shoppers can easily find products that meet their needs at stores like Costco and Target, fulfilling Vegan Action’s original mission: To make vegan products accessible to all.