When "plant-based" isn't vegan?
Bag of Milton's Protein Crackers at Costco Langford BC. Why bother advertising that it is "plant-based" when it contains milk? I mean, I've seen products stating that they "may contain milk" but this one straight up says it does black on white!
I'm being gaslit by a bag of crackers...
45 replies
Plant based and containing milk are not mutually exclusive....
If it was vegan it'd say vegan?
People usually assume plant based means "it's made entirely of plants" not "it's mostly made of plants"
Since, by the second definition, anything not mostly animal products is plant based. Kind of pointless.
Majority is still not a requirement.
Then a meatloaf is plant based because it has crackers and spices in it. Fried chicken is plant based because it's breaded. 🤡
What an obnoxiously stupid comparison lol
If you eat a salad with chicken, that's meat-based protein
If you eat one with beans, that's plant-based protein
This label isn't abusing language to make a false claim. It's meat-free protein
Uh huh.
So if it's a bean burrito made with added lard and cheese, it's plant based? After all, it's plant-based protein!
It's nonsense. What's even the point of having a label that says "plant based" if it doesn't mean "made of plants"?
The burrito would have plant-based protein, yes. The burrito would not be plant-based. It doesn't say the chips are plant-based, it says the protein is plant-based. Like it doesn't even seem like they're trying to trick you.
What the fuck? The whole reason people buy things that are plant-based is because they don't want to eat animals - either vegans or environmentalists or other conscious consumers. No one who is shopping for plant based protein wants lard in their food. What's the point of the "plant-based" label if it doesn't mean "made of plants"? Who is it for? It's fucking stupid.
Why are you defending this? These kinds of ticky-tacky advertising technicalities just make the consumer's experience worse.
It's literally in the words itself: plant-based = based on plants, not completely plants.
A ham sandwich is based on plants.
vegan means vegan... or at least it used to.
Scrambled eggs are plant based cause I added dillweed
I agree in that it is misleading. But if you think "like a lawyer" it is technically correct. Hence, they can put it in the box
This post clearly isn't what they're legally allowed to do.
Or if you think like a scam artist.
Laws I'm familiar with are based on what a reasonable consumer would think, and it's reasonable to think "plant based" means "made of plants". They can get away with a lot of weasel words and misleading statements, but there are limits.
But maybe the standard in BC is different.
You're also coming across as entirely unreasonable lol
It's reasonable to be upset when scam artists try to trick us.
based means based plant based means based on plants, not 100% comprised of. plant-based also has nothing to do with ethics/exploitation/animal cruetly/animal testing.
Based =/= made entirely from.
But I am also the person who gets frustrated in the freezer section when companies use green packaging and the food is NOT vegan or vegetarian.
If it doesn't mean "made entirely from" then it doesn't mean anything.
By that definition, spaghetti and meatballs is plant based as long as it's mostly made of wheat and tomato sauce.
Gibberish.
That is the point, it doesn't mean anything, it is a marketing term designed to sell products while also moving people away from veganism, and removing ethics from the mindset of supposedly ethical consumers.
I mean if you were genuine, wouldn't you be looking for "vegan" products anyway?
But that is correct. And I dont like it either.
It doesn't meet the "reasonable consumer" standard. A reasonable consumer would not think "plant based" means anything other than "made entirely of plants" - though that's US law, no idea about BC.
"based" not "completely"
Again, this implies nonsense like all pizzas being plant based because the pizza is mostly made of wheat. It effectively makes the label meaningless, just a way to trick people and not actually meaningful information.
I could see a lawsuit coming out of it. It's a misleading label, and they have to know it.
There was a big push a few years ago to come up with an alternative to "vegan" to put on packaging, and they came up with "Plant-based" as the euphemism of choice. I don't recall what the major driver was, it was either from vegans who say veganism entails more than just "don't put animal products directly into the product" or if it was manufacturers who thought the word "vegan" would scare away normies after decades of bad mouthing.
I saw it coming immediately that plant-based doesn't mean "vegan but they didn't bother certifying" but rather that it means "has some part that is mostly plants", see the Jimmy Dean plant based patty sandwiches.
If it ain't got that (V) you gotta start deciphering the ingredients list cause those Fulkerson will put in anything
The big push was to remove ethics from the equation, impossible foods really appreciated that.
To me it is pretty clear that it's advertising the protein as plant based (which it is, from the looks of it)
None of the ingredients seem to have dairy in it. Maybe it's a confusing way of disclosing cross-contamination in Canada?
Or "natural flavors" is hiding a milk ingredient. That can evidently happen.
I think that's an allergy warning like "may contain traces" warnings, but probably more severe.
The only ingredient which has any chance of being related to milk would be the "natural flavour" which could be anything. If you want to settle it for sure, you could contact the company and ask about it.
It's the "contains milk" part that seems like it might be false advertising.
I once asked for a Vegan paddy burger 🍔. They added bacon to it! WTF!
Probably not as uncommon as you think! I'm not a vegan but I'll order a plant burger if it's an option
Plant-based never meant vegan, it is a deliberately nonsensical marketing term.