Vegan

Vegan

Definition

Vegan — Contains no animal-derived ingredients and no animal byproducts.

A product labeled vegan contains no ingredients sourced from animals — no meat, dairy, eggs, honey, beeswax, lanolin, carmine, gelatin, silk, or other animal-derived substances.

In personal care and cosmetics, "vegan" is distinct from "cruelty-free": a vegan product may still have been tested on animals unless it also carries a cruelty-free certification, and a cruelty-free product may still contain animal byproducts.

Reliable third-party vegan certifications include The Vegan Society's trademark, Vegan Action's Certified Vegan logo, and PETA's Vegan mark.

How Vegan is verified and scored

Sustainability language is largely unregulated, so the useful question is always what evidence sits behind the word. Here is how Vegan is treated across the site, and what a shopper can check independently.

How QuickRatey treats the term Vegan compared with other claim types
Claim type	Evidence required	Scored?	Example
Third-party certification	Live registry entry with scope and expiry	Yes — Brand & Trust	GOTS, B Corp, Leaping Bunny, FSC
Measurable specification	A number on the spec sheet or listing	Yes — Quality, Value, Experience	Recycled content %, warranty years
Regulated claim	Legal definition in the market of sale	Yes, where it applies	Organic (food), cosmetics testing bans
Unregulated adjective	None	No	Eco-friendly, green, natural
Future pledge	A published target, not a result	No — shown as context	Carbon neutral by 2040

Checking a Vegan claim in four steps

1
Find who is making the claim
Distinguish the brand's own wording from a third party's assessment. If the only source for Vegan is the brand, it is an intention rather than a verified fact.
2
Look for the number or the certificate
Quantified claims survive scrutiny; adjectives do not. A percentage, a certificate number or a warranty term is something you can actually check.
3
Check the boundary and the scope
Most overstatement lives in scope: one certified line implying a whole catalogue, or a footprint figure that excludes the largest emissions source.
4
Weigh it against use and lifespan
A claim only matters in proportion to how you will use the product. Longevity and repairability usually outweigh a single headline attribute.

Vegan: common questions

What does Vegan mean?

Contains no animal-derived ingredients and no animal byproducts.

Is Vegan regulated or verifiable?

Vegan is issued by a third-party certifier with a public registry, so any claim can be checked against a certificate number, its scope and its expiry date. A logo without a resolvable registry entry is not treated as evidence.

Does Vegan affect a product's QuickRatey score?

Yes. A verified Vegan credential feeds the Brand & Trust pillar, which is 20% of the 0–100 composite. It raises the ceiling but cannot compensate for weak durability, poor value or a bad ownership experience.

How do I check a Vegan claim myself?

Find the issuing body or the underlying number, then confirm it independently: a certificate on the certifier's registry, a stated percentage on the spec sheet, or a warranty and spare-parts policy you can read. If nothing resolves, treat the claim as marketing.

Where does Vegan appear on QuickRatey?

On product pages where the attribute is present, in category and use-case rankings as a filter, and in the methodology page where the scoring weights are published in full.

See Vegan products

How Vegan is verified and scored

Checking a Vegan claim in four steps

Find who is making the claim

Look for the number or the certificate

Check the boundary and the scope

Weigh it against use and lifespan

Vegan: common questions

Related terms