Removing “vegan” labels from food products could make them more attractive and thus protect the environment.
- Removing labels that mention the term “vegan” could make these foods more attractive to consumers.
- This initiative would be a good thing for the environment, which is very impacted by excessive meat consumption.
- In France, veganism is a minority trend which is growing a little more each year.
A new study indicates that the removal of labels mentioning the term “vegan” could make these foods more attractive to consumers.
Veganism, a good thing for the environment
“Our food systems have a significant and extremely negative impact on the environment, a trend that is easy to counter by simply eating fewer animal products,” explains research director Alex Berke in the introduction.
“The department I work in spends a lot of money on catered events. So in 2021, as part of a climate initiative, I proposed that the university avoid purchasing meat, an initiative which has been widely controversial”, he explains again. With this new research, “my motivation is therefore to lead my department and as many similar institutions as possible to adopt more ecological eating habits”, he emphasizes.
The presence of the label “vegan” has a negative impact
To move in this direction, its teams conducted two field studies by organizing events during which participants could eat meals for free. The first survey brought together 53 people, and the second 103. All received an invitation in which they could choose a vegan meal or a vegetarian meal. In some invitations, the choice of vegan meal was attached to the mention “vegan”, and in others not.
The results of the two experiments showed that the presence of the label “vegan” had a negative impact on the likelihood of participants choosing the vegan option. Specifically, in the labeled condition, 36.6% of participants chose the vegan option, while in the unlabeled condition, 42.7% chose the vegan option. Furthermore, the researchers observed that male participants perceived the label less well. “vegan” than women.
Based on their results, the scientists recommend removing labels indicating “vegan” food products in order to encourage consumers to make a more environmental selection when shopping.
Where is veganism in France?
In France, veganism is a minority trend which is growing a little more each year. In a survey published last January, 38% of those questioned had already opted for a vegan dish once in their life and 26% were ready to test this diet for a month, compared to 18% in 2020 and 12% in 2019.
