Vegetarian and Vegan: What the Words Mean on Labels and Menus

Two menus can describe the same lentil dish in two different ways: a little green “V” on one, “plant-based” in brackets on the other. Neither mark tells the whole story, and the gap between them is where most of the confusion about these words lives. The terms vegetarian and vegan have exact meanings, a surprisingly long history and, in Britain, a pair of societies that look after them.

This guide sets out what each common word means, where the two main ones came from, how to read UK labels, and what is worth asking in a restaurant.

What does vegetarian mean?

A vegetarian does not eat meat, poultry, game, fish, shellfish or any other animal flesh. The Vegetarian Society adds a stricter point that many people miss: a vegetarian also avoids the by-products of slaughter. That rules out gelatine (made from bones and skin), animal rennet in cheese, animal fats such as lard and suet, stock made from meat or fish bones, and some less obvious ingredients such as isinglass, a fish product historically used to clear beer and wine.

Within that broad meaning there are a few named variations. A lacto-ovo vegetarian eats both dairy products and eggs, and this is the most common form in the UK; when people simply say “vegetarian” they usually mean this. A lacto vegetarian eats dairy but not eggs, a pattern widespread in India. An ovo vegetarian eats eggs but not dairy. These words are more often found in nutrition writing than on menus, but they explain why a “vegetarian” friend might still turn down an omelette. The word alone does not settle it.

The Vegetarian Society was founded in 1847, at a meeting held on 30 September at Northwood Villa in Ramsgate, Kent. Its early leadership and much of its energy came from Manchester and Salford, where a strong vegetarian movement had grown up around the Bible Christian Church, and the society is still based in Greater Manchester today. It did a great deal to bring the word “vegetarian” into everyday use, although the word had been in occasional print a few years earlier.

What does vegan mean?

A vegan avoids all animal products, which means no meat or fish and also no dairy, eggs or honey. For most vegans the idea reaches beyond food: leather, wool, silk, down, cosmetics tested on animals and products containing animal ingredients are avoided where that is practical. The Vegan Society’s definition describes veganism as a way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of and cruelty to animals, for food, clothing or any other purpose.

The word itself is younger than many people assume. It was coined in 1944 by Donald Watson, a woodwork teacher from Leicester, who with a small group of others set up the Vegan Society in November of that year. Watson built the word from the first three and the last two letters of “vegetarian”, seeing veganism as the beginning and the logical end of vegetarianism. Other names were floated at the time, including “dairyban” and “allvega”, before the shorter word won.

World Vegan Day, held on 1 November each year, was started in 1994 to mark the society’s fiftieth anniversary.

Pescatarian, flexitarian and plant-based

Pescatarian describes someone who eats fish and shellfish but no meat or poultry. It is sometimes treated as a kind of vegetarianism, but it is not one: the Vegetarian Society is explicit that vegetarians do not eat fish. Ordering as a “vegetarian who eats fish” causes real problems in a busy kitchen, because a chef may then assume that fish stock or anchovies in a dressing are acceptable for every vegetarian guest.

Flexitarian is a newer word for someone who eats mostly vegetarian or vegan food but still has meat or fish now and then. There is no fixed rule about how often. It is useful as a description of how a lot of people eat in practice, but it is not a dietary requirement a restaurant can cater for, and it would be odd to mention it when ordering.

Plant-based is the loosest of the group. It can mean a diet built mainly around plants, or a product made without animal ingredients, or simply a marketing phrase. Some people prefer it to “vegan” because it describes food rather than a wider ethical position. On a label it is a hint rather than a guarantee, which is why the next section matters.

What the labels mean in UK shops

There is no specific statutory definition of “vegetarian” or “vegan” for food labels in the UK. General food law requires that labels are not misleading, and the Food Standards Agency has issued guidance on the terms in the past, but day-to-day assurance comes largely from two independent trademarks.

The Vegetarian Society Approved trademark appears as a green logo with a “V” and the society’s name, and the society also runs a separate Vegan Approved mark. For a product to carry the vegetarian trademark it must be free from meat, fish and slaughter by-products, contain only free-range eggs where eggs are used, contain no genetically modified ingredients, and not have been tested on animals. Those criteria go further than the bare dictionary meaning, which is part of the point.

The Vegan Society trademark, a sunflower with the word “vegan”, was formally launched in 1990 and is now one of the most widely recognised marks of its kind. It confirms that a product contains no animal ingredients and that neither the product nor its ingredients have been tested on animals by or on behalf of the manufacturer.

Two smaller points help in the supermarket. A “may contain milk” or “may contain egg” statement refers to the risk of allergen cross-contact in the factory, not to an ingredient; it matters greatly to someone with an allergy and less to many vegans, who decide for themselves. And an ingredients list can carry animal products under technical names: whey, casein and lactose come from milk; E120 (carmine or cochineal) comes from insects; E904 (shellac) is an insect resin; and vitamin D3 is commonly made from lanolin in sheep’s wool.

A brief aside on that last one: lanolin is wool grease, the waxy substance that keeps rain off a sheep’s fleece, and it has been used in ointments and soaps for centuries. That the same grease ends up as the vitamin in a bowl of fortified cereal is one of the odder routes in modern food production.

Other words on the packet

Several more phrases turn up on UK packaging, and they are easy to mistake for one of the main terms.

“Suitable for vegetarians” is a manufacturer’s own statement. It usually means what it says, but without a trademark there is no independent check behind it, and it says nothing about whether eggs are free-range. “Meat-free” is narrower still: a meat-free ready meal can contain fish sauce, gelatine or a cheese made with animal rennet.

“Dairy-free” is the one that most often trips people up. A dairy-free cake may still contain eggs, and a dairy-free sauce may contain honey, so neither is automatically vegan. The same goes for “egg-free”. These labels exist mainly for people with allergies and intolerances, and the supermarket “free-from” aisle is organised around allergens rather than around diets, which is why vegan and gluten-free products often share shelf space without having much else in common.

At the other end of the scale sit a few specialist terms. “Wholefood plant-based” describes a vegan way of eating that also avoids heavily processed foods, refined oils and white flour; it is a style of diet rather than a label category. “Raw vegan” means vegan food that has not been heated above a fairly low temperature, an approach with a small but devoted following. Neither appears often on packaging, but both turn up on café menus and in cookbooks, and it helps to know that a “plant-based” recipe book might be written from either position.

None of these words has the precision of a trademark. They are worth reading as a first filter, followed by a look at the ingredients.

Ordering in restaurants

Most UK restaurants now mark vegetarian and vegan dishes on their menus, often with a “V” and “VE” or a small leaf symbol, but the marks only cover the recipe as written. A few questions catch most of the common slips.

Stock is the first thing to ask about, since soups, risottos and gravies are often made with chicken or beef stock. Then cheese: Parmesan, Gorgonzola and some other traditional cheeses are made with animal rennet and are not vegetarian, which catches out pesto, Caesar dressing and many pasta dishes. Worcestershire sauce usually contains anchovies, as does a classic Caesar dressing, and Thai and Vietnamese dishes often use fish sauce. For vegans, butter on vegetables, egg wash on pastry, honey in dressings and milk in mashed potato are the usual surprises.

Using the precise word helps the kitchen. “Vegan” is understood by almost every chef now, and asking for a dish “with no animal products at all” leaves no doubt. If you have an allergy as well as a dietary preference, say so separately, because allergies are handled with different procedures in a professional kitchen.

Norwich is an easier city than many for this, with a long-standing vegetarian and vegan community and plenty of places that cook without meat by default. Separate pages cover vegan dinner in Norwich and brunch in Norwich, sorted by kind of place, while the Norwich Lanes page covers the independent streets where many of them sit.

Why the precise words still matter

It is tempting to treat these labels as fussy distinctions, but they do practical work. A chef who knows the difference between vegetarian and pescatarian will not put fish stock in the risotto. A shopper who knows that “plant-based” is not a guarantee will turn the packet over. And someone choosing a present for a vegan friend, as our gift guide explains, will avoid the honey and the leather.

For anyone moving towards eating more plants, the NHS has straightforward pages on both the vegetarian diet and the vegan diet, covering the nutrients worth planning for. The words, though, are the place to start, and the quickest test of any menu is still the oldest one: ask what the stock is made from.