Living Vegan For Dummies - Alexandra Jamieson [76]
Checking labels and seals of approval
A few different certification organizations deem a product or company to be vegan and cruelty-free. The Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (CCIC) gives a leaping bunny symbol to companies that don’t use any new animal testing in developing their products, either by the company, its suppliers, or laboratories (see Figure 11-1). The products covered by this label can be cosmetics, personal health and beauty, or household products. The CCIC has a list of certified companies on its Web site, www.leapingbunny.org.
Because this designation only covers the testing aspect of a product and not its ingredients, you need to check the list of ingredients for any animal byproducts.
Another seal to look for is the “Certified Vegan” logo used by Vegan Action (www.vegan.org). This logo, shown in Figure 11-2, is used on products that haven’t been tested on animals and don’t contain any animal or insect ingredients or byproducts.
Figure 11-1: This logo indicates that a product hasn’t been tested on animals.
Figure 11-2: This logo indicates a product that contains no animal ingredients and wasn’t tested on animals.
Certifed Vegan Logo – Trademarked
These logos make identifying vegan products easier and can help you shop without carrying around an ingredient list in your bag. Buying these products is another way to show companies that the vegan market is growing, and such purchases make the ideals of vegan living more visible to mainstream consumers. Note that not every vegan product is certified by these organizations, so if you like a product but don’t see a label, do a little investigating, because the company may be in the certification process.
Beauty Without Cruelty was the first cosmetics and beauty brand formed specifically to offer an alternative to products that use animal testing and ingredients. Founded in England in 1963, this brand has grown worldwide and is a true vegan success story.
The animal rights activism group PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, also has devised a labeling campaign to help guide your purchases of beauty, healthcare, and cleaning products. The companies that make the products certified with the “Caring Consumer” bunny logo (see Figure 11-3 and www.caringconsumer.com) have either signed a statement of assurance to PETA or verified a statement that they don’t perform animal testing and promise not to do any in the future.
None of these labels are legally binding, and the companies could theoretically perform testing anyway, but it would be a public relations nightmare for them if the public found out they were secretly using animal ingredients or testing.
Many companies carry both cruelty-free products and products that contain animal byproducts or may still be tested on cats, dogs, and rabbits. These companies take the liberty of presenting the image of a caring, concerned organization on a certain product while continuing to use and abuse animals for other gains. If you feel strongly about not supporting a company that harms animals in any way for any of its products, don’t buy any of its cruelty-free products either.
Figure 11-3: This logo indicates that a product has been approved by PETA.
Courtesy of PETA.org
Scrutinizing ingredient lists
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn’t set forth a law or mandate that requires companies to test products for safety. That’s right: The government doesn’t test cosmetics and personal care products for safety, because the industry is supposed to police itself. That can lead to problems for consumers, because many beauty products contain toxic components, including known