Nicole Astra:
Welcome to Talking Plant Protein. I am Nicole Astra. Joining me today representing V-Label is Jenifer Linares. Thank you so much for joining us.

Jenifer Linares:
Thank you for having me, Nicole.

Nicole Astra:
So, let's dive in with the real meaning behind V-Label, of course consumers can glance at a package and see the V-Label and know that the contents are vegan, but there's more to it than that. So I really would like to understand the backing, the certification that goes into this label. What's the story?

Jenifer Linares:
Yes. So the V-Label, first of all, is the world's leading vegan and vegetarian trademark, with more than 40,000 products certified and it's present in 50 countries. So it's like very robust and it's very backed-up and known all over the world. But what needs to be known is that packaging and labeling is really sometimes not enough. Many of us, or most of us have heard of the term accidentally vegan. And we oftentimes believe that some products that have been produced, not purposely produced for vegans, may be suitable for vegans because none of their ingredients that are listed are of animal origin. However, this is not always true, because for instance processing methods may not be declared. So this for instance is the case of wine, many commercial wines, actually most commercial wines oftentimes use animal products during the clarification process. So they use these animal products as processing aids. They may use for instance, milk, Casein or egg whites, or even animal gelatin to clarify the wine. And this is nowhere on the labeling or the packaging. So, actually some wine products within [crosstalk 00:01:49].

Nicole Astra:
That's news to me as well.

Jenifer Linares:
Yes, yes, exactly. Some wines are not even vegetarian, actually, most of them. So this is something that I wanted to clarify, the term accidentally vegan. Once you start digging into it, you realize it's ... does it really exist or doesn't it. And once you start knowing how the production process works, and the fact that processing aids are not declared, then you know, well, I want to have more certainty. It happens as well for instance, that production lines are oftentimes shared between veg products, vegan or vegetarian and non-veg products. So that's something, again that doesn't get to the consumer through labeling or packaging, but it's something that we find out about when we certify the products. And if we talk about something like cosmetics, for instance, it's like mission impossible, really to read a label because all the ingredients are so foreign to us.

Jenifer Linares:
And many of them, it happens with food as well, but even more with cosmetics, many of the ingredients may be critical ingredients that could or could not be of animal or plant-based origin. So the same ingredient could be either animal-based or plant-based. And then with cosmetics, you don't know whether the product has been tested on animals from packaging. So there is a lot of things going on that doesn't get through just from the ingredient list. And this is what the V-Label communicates and reassure customers on when buying products with the V-Label.

Jenifer Linares:
You have the certainty that the product has been checked in all its, not only ingredients, but also processing methods that products, for instance in cosmetics have not been tested on animals. And we actually then check things like that the product does not contain GMOs. So, it's much more than checking ingredients. And I actually would like to highlight as well that it's not just about the producer declaring all this, but we actually audit everything. And we come with the support of a partner, a great partner, a world class partner such as SGS, that takes care of all the auditing part.

Nicole Astra:
And this is why you guys are such a trusted voice in this industry and have been since the nineties, tell me a little bit of about the history?

Jenifer Linares:
In the year 1996, the trademark was used in Switzerland by Swissveg, which is the veg association in Switzerland and three years later, Renato Pichler, who is the current CEO at V-Label GmbH and who was at the time, the president of the European Vegetarian Union and also the founder of Swissveg. He proposed to the other European National Vegetarian Unions to use the label as well in their countries and really make it an international project of the vegan and vegetarian movement in Europe. So the idea was really to make the vegan and vegetarian products widespread, all over the world and to really make it something mainstream, so that people would not look at vegans and vegetarians as someone who is, say like weird in a way that has to go to a special shop to get their things, but really to bring it to the mainstream, to the supermarkets.

Jenifer Linares:
And in a way to make it grow because when all the brands see that products are certified, they start wondering, "I also want to be certified. What do I have to do, to do that?" And actually the V-Label has really helped vegan and vegetarians to have products available in a way that we could not think of when it all started almost 30 years ago. But it also has helped many companies to make the shift towards a plant-based portfolio, either fully or partially, because it has accompanied many companies in finding the tweak in their ingredient list, or in their production lines or their production methods. So that they could be certified. And since more and more companies are jumping on this and getting certified, then even more and more want to follow along.

Nicole Astra:
So this resonates with me because I've been a plant-based eater since the nineties. And not only was it difficult to find products then, but we did have to scrutinize the labels and there wasn't a process to understand the processing system. So, again, you've made it mainstream far before it was mainstream. What does purpose-driven company mean to you guys?

Jenifer Linares:
Yeah, I would say that the V-Label is a purpose-driven organization because it's run by like-minded individuals. This is not like I said before in a way, a company that has just seen the opportunity to jump on a global train and just make money out of it. This is a company where everyone is a hundred percent onboard with the mission. We are all vegans or vegetarians and we really want to work towards a plant-based world. And we know that with what we do every day, we're just making it happen and it gets bigger and bigger. And actually it really works as a social enterprise. In a way it's like using the system to create something good, like using the capitalist system to create something good because we use a trademark to actually promote the plan-based life even more.

Jenifer Linares:
At a local level we work with organizations that are non-for-profit, that distribute the label and they keep most part of the profits so that they can fund their projects that promote a plant-based lifestyle. So, by selling the label in a way we fund the projects that create more awareness around the plant-based lifestyle, it's benefits for one's own health, for the environment and the animals. And then a small fraction goes back to the central organization just to be able to pay for their international operations and marketing, but not really for profit and paying shares to the shareholders or anything like that. It's, whenever there is excess, it just goes back to funding all these projects. The purpose is really to make a plant-based world as fast as possible and as easy as possible for those who want to consume plant-based.

Nicole Astra:
This is the part of your story that I really hope people understand, because I mean, I believe you've said before, 90% of the profits go back into the communities to promote a plant-forward lifestyle and that's astonishing. And again, we're focusing on that global mission of sustainability and food security. And so you guys are doing it right. Let me ask you, how do you stay relevant?

Jenifer Linares:
We're working hard to be more than just a label. Not only are we pioneers with 30 years of expertise and know-how, with great connections in the industry, from producers. And we have that ability, for instance, if someone wants to come on board in the plant-based industry, or they want to make the shift, we have very relevant connections with producers, with even retail chains and so on. So apart from that know-how and a wide, wide network all over the world, we're trying to add as much value as we can. We conduct market research. We do surveys, we recently did a consumer survey with 23,000 respondents from all over the world, from 40 countries, where we learned for instance, that actually 91% of consumers prefer to see a certificate such as a V-Label on the packaging because transparency is important.

Jenifer Linares:
Consumers are more and more savvy nowadays, so they really want to know. We do digital webinars where we share our knowledge around the new trends and we connect companies and we let the producers and people who are bringing new products into the plant-based market, speak in this webinars. And we have also had this year, the first edition of the International V-Label Awards, really with the aim of echoing and amplifying the message of the many, many players of the plant-based industry, from very small passionate projects and products to the big multinationals that are jumping on board and really contributing to democratize their plant-based product. So, we're really doing everything in our power to amplify the message and to make the shift happen as fast as possible.

Nicole Astra:
If our audience wants to learn more about the V-Label Award, they can check out a recent TPP News Minute. Jenifer, thanks for joining us on Talking Plant Protein.

Jenifer Linares:
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me Nicole.