A Universal Vegetarian Symbol
Intro - Consumers - Industry - Press - Organisations
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Already 20 years ago there was an intention to launch one symbol for vegetarianism world-wide. In fact William Pick, founder and President of the Jewish Vegetarian Society, tried to spread a universal vegetarian symbol in 1976. There were two signs under discussion, the Italian one and the English one. The VSUK did not agree that their symbol would be taken for general use and that is why the Italian sign was promoted. The 'V'-sign was created by the Italian artist Prof. Bruno Nascimben, (Castenaso) and has been presented for world-wide use at the EVU Congress 1985 in Cervia Italy. Many vegetarian and vegan societies have adopted the 'V'-sign in the meantime and it has become the widest spread vegetarian symbol world-wide. The market for vegetarian products, for alternative 'meat products' is growing rapidly and there is obviously a need to make all these products recognisable for the interested consumer. When 'Migros', the biggest Swiss super-market chain started to use the symbol on their products in 1996, Renato Pichler, president of the Swiss Vegetarian Union, had the symbol registered for his society in Switzerland. As many commercial societies are multinational, the EVU decided to have the 'V' sign registered in Europe in order to prevent misuse by some non-vegetarian society. Only this way can there be control of the ingredients for instance. The 'V'-sign is registered in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Denmark, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Poland; Portugal, Slowakia, Spain, Switzerland. The protection of the sign is valid from July 1997 onwards. Since then a lot of work has been done for the elaboration of rules, conditions and many more things for the use of the symbol.
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