Behind the Scenes of the EVU

The “European Vegetarian“ takes a look at one of the EVU Board members and their main activities. This edition: Renato Pichler - President of the EVU



Ah Switzerland. Its chocolate and mountains. Its famous watches and multifunctional army knives. And its president of the European Vegetarian Union.

Renato Pichler was one of the founders of the Schweizerische Vereinigung für Vegetarismus (SVV), the Swiss Vegetarian Union, in 1993 and he’s been the president of this organisation since the very beginning. In 2005, at the European Vegetarian Union’s Annual General Meeting in Riccione, Italy, he took over the presidency of the EVU from Igor Bukowsky. We talked to Renato about one of his main areas of responsibility: the V-Label.

The 'V'-label was created by the Italian artist Prof. Bruno Nascimben, and was presented for world-wide use at the EVU Congress in Cervia, Italy in 1985. Many vegetarian and vegan societies have since adopted the V-Label and it has become the most widely used vegetarian symbol world-wide. In 1995, the SVV registered the V-label in Switzerland. That way, we were able to give a license to the biggest supermarket-chain in Switzerland, Migros. Before the label was registered, it was used as a logo for many vegetarian organisations, but not to identify vegetarian products or restaurants.

Products that carry the V-Label must not contain any product from animal bodies. This is the normal definition of vegetarian products. The advantage of the label is that all ingredients are carefully controlled before the producer can use it. Through experiences with many companies, it is obvious that even the bigger ones aren’t exactly clear on what “vegetarian” really means and which hidden slaughterhouse-products are used in some ingredients. For restaurants, it’s even more difficult. With products, the veggie consumers can normally rely on what is written on the package. Not so for restaurants. The sauce of a dish, for instance, is always a factor of uncertainty for any vegetarian customer. It is in cases like this that the V-Label offers a solution: it guarantees that the respective restaurant serves strictly vegetarian menus. So no worries about your veggie meal containing tuna, ham or gelatine.

Today, eight European countries are using the V-Label for a better product-declaration and there are hundreds of products already carrying the label. Some countries are still only at a very early stage so there is definitely a lot of potential left. The organisation across Europe is in the hands of the EVU who takes care of registering the label as a mark, co-ordinating meetings to discuss the future of the label, exchange of know-how, etc. However, one organisation in every country is responsible for the label. They are, of course, supported by the EVU. Checking whether companies and restaurants are in compliance with the V-Label conditions is also up to the local organisations. Again, the EVU supports them with special forms so as to make sure that the checks are done according to the label’s regulations. Further support is given in the form of information on a good control-scheme.

The benefit for vegetarians is clear: they can trust this label. They know that all products carrying this label are carefully controlled by a vegetarian organisation. The label is also useful for vegans because they can immediately see if it contains animal products. A product that has the label together with the word "vegan" written beneath it means it really is vegan.

Our biggest achievement so far is the fact that the label has been used for several years in the biggest super-market-chain in Switzerland (with 592 shops). And at the end of last year the second biggest super-market-chain decided to use the label as well. These two cover about 75% of the Swiss retail market. Looking towards the future, we want to make the V-label better known in every country in Europe. And of course we want to see the label on as many products as possible.

The V-label for restaurants is still in a very early stage in most countries. Introducing it more widely is our biggest challenge for the future...


For information on the V-label, please refer to the website under: www.v-label.info.