I suspect you probably don’t spend much time in the dairy aisle in the supermarket. I do. As someone who speaks for the vegan sector, I like to keep an eye on what the ‘other side’ is up to. But if you haven’t taken a look at dairy products for a while, you would be forgiven for thinking the whole industry had gone plant-based! See my photos above from my recent trip.
Dairy is in decline, and it knows it. Consumers continue to switch to plant-milks, even if they don’t identify as being vegan themselves, and as such we’ve seen many dairy producers start to add ‘plant-based’ icon to their packaging. Almost every carton of milk now carries a predominant green V or leaf icon, often accompanied by text (too small for me to read without my glasses) pointing out that the V stands for vegetarian, not vegan. Others display a large leaf icon to show that the product uses ‘plant-based’ packaging (ie cardboard).
If you would argue “well, it’s just telling consumers that this is a vegetarian product”, then let me tell you that packaging design is a science. Space and viewing time is at a premium, meaning what iconography is most predominantly displayed is chosen with a lot of purpose. So that’s a lot of visual real-estate being used up just to make sure that vegetarians don’t confuse this milk with that other type of milk that contains meat and fish.
This ‘v-washing’ (or leaf-washing as it’s now become) has become a common trend across many sectors. The egg mayo sandwiches in my local chain coffee shop now have a plant icon on them, as do the cheese melts. It catches the staff out, so what chance do casual consumers looking for plant-based alternative have? One supermarket range even uses the leaf icon on the front of the packaging of their roast chicken sandwiches to show that chicken is a ‘source of protein’.
It needs addressing, but the problem is that many of the dominant plant-based brands are made by companies that get most of their money by selling animal-based products also, so they are not going to push back against it. It will be down to the vegan-owned food brands to create their own campaigns and legal challenges against misleading labelling, which is unfortunately a far-less resourced group.
David 💚🌱
David’s thoughts from the week, published every weekend for members only.
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