GREEN QUEEN: BeVeg Becomes First Vegan Certification To Be ISO Accredited
BeVeg International, a Miami-based vegan certification organization, has just become the first vegan standard to be accredited and recognized by ISO 17065, the international quality assessment for bodies that certify products, processes and services. It marks an important step in ensuring vegan quality assurance in products, from food to fashion.
BeVeg’s vegan certification program has just been accredited by ISO 17065. It was granted and announced by the National Accreditation Center (NAC) under APAC. According to BeVeg, a law firm issued vegan symbol, they are the first vegan certifying organization to achieve the same quality assurance and accreditation in accordance with global standards.
Vegan claims and labels are just as important and serious as kosher, gluten-free, organic, and other food and product safety certifications.
Carissa Kranz, Attorney founder & CEO of BeVeg
BeVeg decided to pursue the ISO standard in order to ensure trust from consumers about truth in labelling laws and that the certification follows globally established best practices for product auditing and certifying across different industries.
“We pursued this rigorous accreditation to serve as an independent validation to assure our customers and consumers that BeVeg’s systems are comprehensive and that every BeVeg certified vegan company or product follows strict — uniform — standards to assure not only food safety but vegan quality assurance for all products across all industry sectors,” said Carissa Kranz, attorney founder and CEO of BeVeg.
Among some of the processes that products must go through to achieve the BeVeg certification include risk assessment, plant audits, equipment and product testing at both the manufacturing site and the point of consumer purchase or retail.
We pursued this rigorous accreditation to serve as an independent validation to assure our customers and consumers that BeVeg’s systems are comprehensive and that every BeVeg certified vegan company or product follows strict — uniform — standards to assure not only food safety but vegan quality assurance for all products across all industry sectors.
Carissa Kranz, Attorney founder & CEO of BeVeg
For Kranz, the accreditation is crucial for consumers to trust that the label is as reliable as any other label on products. “Vegan claims and labels are just as important and serious as kosher, gluten-free, organic, and other food and product safety certifications,” she said.
It comes as shoppers around the world are increasingly in search of ethical, cruelty and animal-free products. Other industries have launched their own standards as demand grows, such as the British Retail Consortium (BRC), who has recently set out guidelines to ensure that all vegan fashion items – including clothing, accessories and shoes – must be 100% free of animal products across the entire supply chain.