Hello VegOttawa Community! One of our newest business partners, Shine Health, recently shared with us their journey about receiving Vegan certification for their products. We thought it was very interesting and wanted to share it with all of you. They were kind enough to put this article together for us and we hope you find this as educational as we did!
Obtaining Vegan Certification
by Phil Desrochers, Co-Founder, Shine Health
What Vegan Certification is Best for Your Company
Many manufacturers of consumable products are considering some form of certification to build trust with their consumer. Today, many consumers are demanding transparent assurance that your products do not contain hidden non-vegan substances.
More specifically, a vegan-certified product is defined as containing no animal ingredients or by-products, using no animal ingredients or by-products in the manufacturing process and no testing on animals by any company or independent contractor.
Here is a list of certification agencies and labels currently available around the world and considered trustworthy – http://vegan-labels.info/
Which one is best for you?
As co-founder of Shine Health, we had to make the same decision. We offer plant-based supplements to help with stress, focus, brain and energy, and we were looking for our first certification. Our two criteria where quite simple:
1. Logo had to be recognized in both Canada and the US
2. Pricing we could afford
The answer quickly became obvious for us as we started the process of getting certified with https://vegan.org/certification/.
The Process
Duration: From start to finish it took about 3 months
Cost: $150-$3000/year depending on your revenue. We loved that they help small businesses get off the ground.
Steps:
– Filled in their Online Application
– Submitted 7-10 different forms that our manufacturer mostly had to confirm (ie. Machines used for our products are not used to make non-vegan products)
– A few back-and-forth emails to clarify a few things
– Once all documentation was signed we waited about 5 weeks for approval
– We received an email approval (one of the proudest moments in my life)
– Pay fee
– Received PDF with logo we can use on site
Lessons learned:
– It was a pretty smooth process
– Vegan-Certification does NOT mean your brand is Vegan-Certified – it means your products are Vegan-Certified
Should you be considering a vegan certification for your products it’s never too early to start the process.
If you have any further questions about the process, feel free to reach us at care@shinehealth.ca.
Phil Desrochers, Co-Founder, www.shinehealth.ca
Plant-based supplements with research-backed ingredients for when stress and setbacks get in your way
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care@shinehealth.ca
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