Veganism is an ever growing trend in the UK, even those who don’t identify as vegan seek vegan products for personal reasons and it’s not just growing in food but in clothing too.

Retailers want to provide their customers with the assurance that any vegan product can be purchased with confidence. As the guidelines explain, classing a product as vegan is a very complex process with the need for retailers to ask more questions than ever before. It not only rules out using leather and wool, but also many glues, dyes, and traces of use in more hidden elements. This means retailers would need to go back to their suppliers and ask the right questions about the raw material ingredients in order verify them individually.

To help address and tackle these challenges, the BRC has worked with its members to create a “Voluntary Guideline on Veganism in Fashion” for retailers and brands to ensure they can provide customers with the level of assurance they expect.

Info included in the guideline:

• Sequence of steps and questions to ask both internally and of suppliers to ensure materials are vegan
• Highlights the risk areas
• Internal questions – what to consider, where to begin and then how to actually implement
• A comprehensive list of all animal derived fibres and materials – this goes into greater depth than retailers currently have
• A vegan declaration for bill of materials