Truffles and veganism seem like a logical combination. After all, truffles are fungi and therefore plant-based. Yet things went wrong for Mister Kitchen’s vegan truffle mayo before the chairman of the Dutch Advertising Code Committee.

What was the issue? Mister Kitchen (and Albert Heijn) used the term ‘vegan’ in various advertisements for a truffle mayonnaise containing real black truffle. In practice, dogs are used to find these truffles.  these truffles. A consumer argued that this conflicted with a vegan claim and filed a complaint. This led to the question: when is a product truly ‘vegan’?

According to the Dutch Vegan Society, veganism means that the production process involves no animals. Truffles found with the help of dogs are therefore not vegan according to that definition. However, international certification schemes, such as ICEA and V-Label, apply a different interpretation. According to those definitions, a product is vegan if it contains no animal ingredients or additives. The use of animals for labor falls outside that scope.

As there is no clear definition of ‘vegan’, the chairman considers that further clarification is needed for consumers. The advertisement did not mention that dogs are used in the search for truffles, nor did it include a reference to a certification label. Consequently, the chairman found the food information unclear and upheld the complaint.

If you use the term ‘vegan’ for a food product where interpretation may be disputed, explain which definition of vegan you are applying. Alternatively, reference the certification mark that supports the claim. Another option is to use the term ‘plant-based’ instead of ‘vegan’.