How should vegan products be labelled to maximise sales?
To find this out, Swissveg commissioned a representative survey from YouGov.
The results are clear: across all the relevant customer groups (vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians), there is a preference for the official V-Label. All other types of labelling (or no vegan labelling at all) are significantly less preferred.
Only amongst omnivores was ‘I don’t know’ the most common response, as they are apparently not interested in vegan labelling or simply do not care.
Plant-based instead of vegan?
There is a recurring debate about whether it is better to label a product as ‘plant-based’ rather than ‘vegan’. Apart from the fact that these terms are not synonyms, the survey clearly shows that, whilst ‘plant-based’ is better received by flexitarians and omnivores than the word ‘vegan’, a ‘vegan’ label is significantly more appealing. Even no labelling at all is generally preferred to the label ‘plant-based’.
It is also clear that the term ‘vegan’ on its own is perceived quite differently from a certification label. Even though the term ‘vegan’ is also included in the V-Label, the V-Label still enjoys by far the greatest acceptance amongst consumers.
The representative survey was carried out by YouGov on behalf of Swissveg between 15 and 24 June 2026. The survey involved 1,020 people aged between 15 and 79 who live in Switzerland.