Does Vegan Certification Have Any Halachic Weight?

Question

There are a number of organizations that offer Vegan Certification for food products; the concept is the same as kosher certification, (though that is the only similarity). Examples would be Vegan.org or vegansociety.org

Do these certifications, in general, or any of them in particular, have any Halachic weight? Can they be trusted to certify, for example, that a processed product is neither dairy nor meaty, or that its ingredients contain no non-kosher animal products, or that a vegetable product contains no insects?

Answer 1

Here's a list of potential issues (one specifically mentioning the Vegan Society and its standards) with vegan-certified food:

1. The vegan standards for "animal-free" may be less stringent than the halakhic standards. I've heard this is particularly true with respect to bug checking for vegetables.
2. Keilim. In particular, even if the restaurant's own keilim are fine, they are not necessarily committed to buying hechshered products (e.g., canned beans). So there could very well be an issue higher up in the supply chain.
3. Wine and grape juice
4. Bishul akum

Here's an old thread on mail.jewish about whether it's allowed to eat in a Jain restaurant, since Jains are extremely "machmir" about animal products.