‘Vegan’ is hard for consumers to swallow

March 12, 2007

By JANET FORGRIEVE, Scripps Howard News Service Published: Sunday, Mar. 11, 2007 Monica Manley doesn’t feel bad about treating 15-month-old daughter Kira to a fast-food lunch most weekdays.The fast food at V.G. Burgers in Boulder, Colo., is almost all organic and the store is focused on promoting a sustainable lifestyle. And while the menu features “burgers” and “chili dogs,” no animals were bothered in the making of lunch.Manley eats a vegan diet and is raising Kira that way, as well, she said.V.G. Burgers, opened in November by business partners Tim Gargiulo and Lester Karplus, uses strictly plant-based ingredients. What it doesn’t use anywhere on its menus or marketing materials is the “v” word.“The word ‘vegan’ tends to scare people – and to exclude people,” said Gargiulo, a retired competitive snowboarder and vegan for 16 years. “We’re still developing the

right language.”Preferably, the language will promote the tasty food and environmental commitment without scaring anyone away, he said.About 2.3 percent of U.S. adults called themselves vegetarian last year, while 1.4 percent were vegan, eschewing all animal products from their diets, according to a poll by the Vegetarian Resource Group.“From a marketing point of view, trying to attract just those people would give you a tiny market, so it makes sense to broaden the appeal by not necessarily proclaiming your veganness,” said Denver restaurant consultant John Imbergamo.In contrast, 6.7 percent reported that they never eat meat, 6.3 percent don’t eat poultry and 14.6 percent don’t eat fish or seafood, the poll indicated. At least half of American adults strive to eat at least two or three meatless meals per week, according to another poll by the trade group.It’s that larger market that restaurants and food sellers must target if

they’re to stick around and grow – as the vegetarians will find them anyway.“The people who want to eat (vegan) food are networkers. They talk. It’s not hard to get your point across to them,” Imbergamo said.Packaged-food sellers often follow the same logic.A handful of companies label their products vegan or suitable for vegans, but most don’t.People following a vegan diet are consummate label readers, so they find what they’re looking for, said Dan Heiges, director of research and development at Boulder-based Wild Oats Markets. Others grab what they like from Wild Oats’ growing line of private-label foods, which don’t wear the “v” word – even when it applies, he said.“We talk about all the characteristics of the products (during development), and we talk about which we should highlight and which really don’t have that much value” on the package, he said.“I think, for mainstream consumers, the word ‘vegan’ implies that it

doesn’t taste as good.”Another eatery faced the same question as V.G. Burgers a decade ago. Denver-based Watercourse Foods always has sold vegetarian and vegan comfort food.It also made the decision at the beginning to leave both “v” words out of its marketing materials most of the time, said owner Dan Landis.“This is great food; it just happens to be vegetarian and vegan,” he said.“In decades past, the word has been loaded with politics and inconsistencies – it was salad on a whole-wheat bun. My goal has been to be inclusive of all people who come in because it’s good food.”Today, the menu lets diners know that vegan versions of all dishes are available, but it doesn’t say “vegetarian” and it doesn’t say that 90 percent or more of the items are already vegan.The result: Vegetarians found him right away, and so did their meat-eating counterparts, and Watercourse has been packing the tables in the 10 years

since.Likewise, since its Nov. 15 opening, V.G. Burgers has grabbed plenty of vegan regulars such as Monica and Kira Manley, Gargiulo said.But it has also brought in plenty of plain old customers looking to find out what “organic fast food” tastes like, he said.“About 80 percent of our customers now are nonvegetarians,” he said. Peter H

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