Vegan is a loaded term for a lot of people. They recoil in horror at the thought of something being "vegan". But "plant-based" isn't anywhere near as vile, for those people.
Like seriously it's quite vile how they treat the vegans before processing them into mashed potatoes that's why I prefer plant based products over vegan products
Not sure if I agree it's meaningless. In most cases it does mean what it implies, even if it doesn't have regulatory backing.
In the UK we've got all sorts of labels like 5 a day, the red tractor to imply it's of a certain standard and from a domestic farm or even the vegan label. They're all basically meaningless labels rather than something that's based on the actual product, but they still tend to track with what they're saying they are in most cases.
Don't take everything at face value, but also don't waste your time worrying that everyone is lying to you barefaced
I read the article and that’s not what it says. It’s actually about meat and dairy industries trying to stop plant-based products using terms like “mayo” or “burger”.
Plant-based means plant-based, as far as I can see.
“manufacturers should take care to clearly label their products as plant-based to the extent they are offered as an alternative to an historically animal-derived product.”
The Committee “encourage[d] FDA to provide clarity around labeling of plant-based foods that use traditional meat, dairy, and egg terminology especially as it relates to such product labels with clear and conspicuous descriptors such plant-based, veggie, vegetarian, or vegan.”
The content and restrictions of these laws vary widely. Some statutes permit “qualified labels” that either include “plant-based,” “vegan,” or other language indicating that the food is plant-based on the packaging “prominently” or “conspicuously.”
“It shall be unlawful for any person . . . to label, advertise, or otherwise represent any food produced or sold in this state as meat or any product from an animal unless each product is clearly labeled by displaying the following terms prominently and conspicuously on the front of the package . . . [for] plant based products as “vegetarian,” “veggie,” “vegan,” “plant based,” or other similar term indicating that the product is plant based and does not include the flesh, offal, or other by-product of any part of the carcass of a live animal that has been slaughtered.”
Whether or not it's a meaningless phrase, it seems in the article you provided they're still at least correlating the terms "plant-based" and "vegan", if not equating them.
I maintain that no reasonable person should ever call a product with sour cream in it "guacamole", but I presume that's the ingredient they're trying to identify is definitely not included.
Dairy free would be a nice way of saying it that gets straight to the point. My gf is lactose intolerant and wow does it ever make shopping difficult. There’s dairy in fucking everything! There was dairy in the goddamn meatballs I bought last week. WTF
If only. Plant-based, in practice as a label (based off my experiences as a American vegan) just means exactly that. It's mostly plant. I got some plant-based burgers one time and was disgusted when I found out egg was used as the binder. Advertising is evil.
Thing is, this seems silly until you actually try to eat a vegan diet. One time I bought pickles, thinking it's literally cucumbers, vinegar and spices, there's no way this couldn't be vegan.
Nope, it came with honey. And it tasted like dogshit, so I don't know why they put it in there, but they sure did.