UK Edition
Vegetarians are eating meat and coeliacs are having gluten because of poor labelling, new study finds
A quarter of vegetarians and vegans have accidentally eaten meat due to unclear food labelling, the Telegraph can reveal.
New research by Opinium for Ubamarket reveals that 40% of the nation don’t understand what they eat and 30% struggle to manage their diet as a result.
Among the findings, the survey showed that 32% of people were not aware that pesto is not vegetarian and an overwhelming 81% also thought that soy sauce was gluten free.
The confusion is the result of poor labelling.
It calls overall food safety into question as 52% of respondents agreed that the complex nature of UK labels makes it difficult for people with dietary requirements to make informed decisions about their food.
This includes those following vegetarian, vegan, dairy free and gluten free diets.
Hazel Gowland, expert in food risks and founder of Allergy Action found this particularly disturbing. She said: “By law, consumers buying food must not be misled. People selling food have to ensure it is safe this includes the obligation to present and provide accurate information about it.
"Information which is inaccurate, incomplete or poorly communicated is a real safety risk to those with food allergies, intolerances and coeliac disease."
The survey asked a representative sample of 2,003 UK voters questions about the transparency of food labelling as well as specific products.
They found that although a lot of crisps, like Pringles and McCoys, contain milk powder in the seasoning, 16% of people still think all crisps are vegan.
The findings follow Pret’s announcement last week that it would introduce full ingredient labelling to product packaging, even for food made freshly in its kitchens.
Pret’s changes came after the inquest into the death of 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse who collapsed on a flight due to anaphylactic shock after she at a Pret sandwich containing sesame.
The coroner found that she was "reassured" by the lack of allergen information on the packaging and declared the chain’s allergy labelling as inadequate.
This week, it was revealed that another Pret customer, Celia Marsh, died in December 2017 after eating the chain’s “super-veg rainbow flatbread”, which was meant to be dairy-free.
Following the news, bakery chain Greggs is now planning to “ramp up” its labelling efforts after its chief executive, Roger Whiteside, said the company was fully aware of the extent of allergy risks. He added that he wanted to ensure that Greggs didn’t follow in the footsteps of Pret.
Commenting on the findings, Dominika Piasecka, spokesperson for The Vegan Society, said: “With so many new and exciting vegan products hitting the market, clear labelling is becoming increasingly important but we find this isn’t always practised.
“Mistakenly consuming animal products does occasionally happen among vegans because they misread labels, get confused with some of the unfamiliar ingredients, or a product is mislabelled.
“Our Vegan Trademark aims to help consumers decide that a product is suitable at a glimpse and we encourage companies to improve their vegan labelling.”
Ubamarket, which commissioned the research, is launching a new Allergen Alerts feature as part of its app.