Vegetarian and vegan symbolism

[3] Symbols may also be used by members of the vegetarian and vegan communities to represent their identities, and in the course of animal rights activism.

[citation needed] Packaged food and toothpaste[4] products sold in India are required to be labelled with a mandatory mark in order to be distinguished between lacto-vegetarian and non-vegetarian.

"Non-vegetarian food (any food which contains whole or part of any animal including birds, marine animals, eggs, or products of any animal origin as an ingredient, excluding honey, milk or milk products), must have a symbol of a brown color-filled circle inside a square with a brown outline prominently displayed on the package, contrasting against the background on the principal display panel, in close proximity to the name or brand name of the food.

A kosher organization (Vaad Hoeir of St. Louis) owns and uses a US trademark (certification mark) consisting of an uppercase V inside a circle.

The colours white, green, and blue were chosen to represent the natural habitats of animals: sky, land, and sea.

The Vegetarian Society Approved vegan trademark was established in 2017 and appears on thousands of products worldwide.

[28] The logo was designed by a Bengaluru-based, Food Science and Nutrition college student-Kruti Manish Rathore.

Vegetarian symbol - square with green outline with green circle inside; New Non Vegetarian symbol - square with redish-brown outline with redish-brown triangle inside; Old Non Vegetarian symbol - square with redish-brown outline with redish-brown circle inside, not for human consumption symbol - square with black outline with black X inside
The green dot symbol (top-left) identifies lacto-vegetarian food, and the redish-brown triangle symbol (top-right) identifies non-vegetarian food.
Vegetarian Society Approved vegetarian trademark
India Introduces Vegan Food Regulations For The First Time