Vegetarian and vegan symbolism

Packaged food products sold in India are required to be labelled with a mandatory mark in order to be distinguished between vegetarian and non-vegetarian.[3][4][5][6][7] The symbol is in effect following the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Act of 2006, and received a mandatory status after the framing of the respective regulations (Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulation) in 2011.[3] According to the law, vegetarian food should be identified by a green symbol and non-vegetarian food with a brown symbol.

The V-label, a V with a leaf, originated with the European Vegetarian Union. The V-Label is a standardized European vegetarian label from the EVU with the aim of easy identification of vegetarian products and services.

The enclosed V (modeled after the enclosed A and the enclosed–E symbols) is a popular vegan symbol, especially on social networks where it is represented by the Ⓥ symbol of the Enclosed Alphanumerics Unicode block. A "V" inside a circle is not used to label products as vegan nor should be relied upon to determine if a product is vegan. A Kosher organization (Vaad Hoeir of St. Louis) owns and uses a US trademark (certification mark) consisting of a V inside a circle.[8]

On internet forums and social networks, the seedling emoji 🌱 is sometimes used to symbolize veganism or vegan products.[8]

The Veganarchy symbol, first introduced in print in Brian A. Dominick's Animal Liberation and Social Revolution pamphlet in 1995, combines the Circle-V with the Circle-A of anarchist symbolism.[9]

The vegan flag[10] was designed by a network group of graphic designers and activists from several countries. The group was opened by Gad Hakimi, a vegan activist and designer from Israel.[11][12] [13] intending to be a civil flag to represent veganism. The flag consists of three blue and green triangles forming the letter V, the first letter in the word "vegan".

Originally, some members of the group suggested that animals should be featured on the flag, with red colours featuring prominently to symbolize the blood of slaughtered animals.[14] However, the group eventually chose to make the flag about human–animal equality, not about animals themselves.[15] Inspired by the LGBT rainbow flag, the flag was created in hopes of uniting animal rights organizations and activists. The colours white, green, and blue were chosen to represent the natural habitats of animals: sky, land, and sea. The letter V stands for Vegan, and is an inverted pyramid intended to symbolize the ability to do the impossible.[16]