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cream. Ilya Kuznetsov thinks it’s justified: ac-
cording to him, craft ice cream is similar to
restaurant food. He believes that the artisanal
vegan ice cream production is where the action
will be in the next 5 years, not least because they
are the ones who can really ensure a clean and
simple ingredient list.

Clean Label, Clear Conscience:
Transparency in Production and
Labeling

Vegans and allergic people alike are often
wary of dairy-free options produced by non-veg-
an companies. And for good reason, since there
are lots of issues there: from the lack of transpar-
ency on the ingredient list to greenwashing and
making fake claims on the packaging (i.e. saying
a product is “vegan” or “fair trade” or “organic”
with no certificates to prove it).
Traces of animal products from shared
production appliances are almost impossible to
avoid, and the general consensus among vegans
is that it’s acceptable (meaning: unavoidable).
Warm Ice owners take pride in their prod- But a lot of times it goes beyond just traces, and
uct not being “for everyone”, describing their there is very little chance for consumers to find
target audience as “people who are well-versed out unless they are willing to pay for expensive
in nutrition science”, “willing to invest in their lab tests themselves. According to Ilya Kuznetsov,
health” and “not necessarily vegan”. the lab testing practice is rare not because it’s
Artisanal brands with ethical vegan found- difficult to perform the t ests, but rather because
ers have a different objective. Alexandra Irinov- very few facilities in Russia specialize in it. Small
na of Sladenkii cooperative said “We don’t see brands are striving to be transparent in this re-
the point of making vegan products that people gard, however, similarly to consumers, they have
with average and minimal income won’t be able to rely on the integrity of their suppliers, which
to afford. Our goal is to make familiar sweets that was the case both for FRIKY and Sladenkii. The
people used to love before going vegan and now co-founder of the latter shared that “in the last 5
miss”. FRIKY owner explains their price point years, we had to stop the production of ice cream
with having higher quality than mass-produced for a whole year, due to the fact that plant-based-
ice cream in addition to building their brand from cream powder, which we initially used as the
scratch with no outside investments. Warm Ice base, turned out to be not vegan, as well as all
founders liken their product to Michelin-level their analogs’’. FRIKY solved this issue by pro-
restaurant desserts as opposed to commercial ice ducing their own soy milk.

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