The Record
Every claim we've graded, on the record
The brief quotes every load-bearing health, climate, cost, and "first ever" claim verbatim and grades it against the evidence. This page is where those grades live on: who said what, what the evidence showed, and where it ran.
76 claims graded, and kept
As of Aug 1, 2026. No other vegan daily grades the claims. 55 claimants · 16 people, 39 organizations
- Proven 11
- Solid 26
- Early 9
- Company claim 23
- Overstated 7
Latest claims
- Solid Aug 1, 2026
“The WFPB induced a clinically significant reduction in LDL-C relative to the SAD”
study authors, Nature Communications
A randomized, fully controlled crossover feeding trial in 50 genetically confirmed patients, with results the authors call clinically significant enough to reestablish diet as a frontline therapy.
- Overstated Jul 31, 2026
“a critical component”
Costco, describing animal welfare in its supply chain, 2021
Mercy For Animals' second investigation of a Costco supplier in five years found chicks crushed and buried alive, no outdoor access despite an organic label, and biosecurity failures, the same categories of harm documented in 2021.
- Solid Jul 31, 2026
“vegetarian diets compared to non-vegetarian diets are associated with reduced risk of total cancer and seven specific cancer types, while vegan diets are associated with reduced risk of total and breast cancer”
study authors, European Journal of Epidemiology
A peer-reviewed systematic review of 17 publications from prospective studies, graded by World Cancer Research Fund criteria as "probable" for vegetarian diets and total, colorectal, colon and breast cancer, and "limited-suggestive" for vegan diets and total and breast cancer specifically.
- Overstated Jul 30, 2026
“these chickens were marketed to Costco shoppers as 'certified organic'”
The investigator documented no outdoor access, biosecurity failures, and organic-standard violations at the farm, none of which USDA organic certification is supposed to allow.
- Early Jul 30, 2026
“China's industrial fermentation ecosystem is among the largest and most developed in the world”
GFI APAC report author Dr. Dirk van der Kley
The claim draws on interviews and named case studies, not audited production data.
- Overstated Jul 29, 2026
“a return of manufacturing jobs to the county”
Economic Alliance Snohomish County, on the plant's 2023 opening
The plant closes two years later, eliminating all 123 of those jobs.
- Company claim Jul 29, 2026
“We project reaching price parity with wholesale commodity beef once fully commercialised in our new facility”
Paul Shapiro, BMC Ingredients CEO
The figure is the company's own unaudited projection for a facility not yet online.
- Company claim Jul 28, 2026
“99.5% accuracy”
The figure is the company's own, not independently audited; Volz says all three commercialized in-ovo sexing methods now cut hatched male chicks below 1%, roughly matching manual post-hatch sexing.
- Solid Jul 28, 2026
“the true climate impact of cow-derived leather is 70% higher than previously estimated”
Peer-reviewed in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering using a top-down life-cycle approach built on UN FAO data, with documented regional variation in the underlying estimates.
- Solid Jul 27, 2026
“a 57% increase in the production of vegetables, fruits, nuts and legumes... would more than offset the losses from livestock productivity”
Nature-published, 10-model food-systems analysis, Gates Foundation funded
Peer-reviewed comparison of a diet-transformation scenario against business-as-usual through 2050; a co-author calls it "a useful early guide," not a forecast.
- Overstated Jul 27, 2026
“ground-based evidence”
then-environment and forestry minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar, 2018–2022
The new government-co-authored, peer-reviewed reassessment, the first since 2016, found a 19.5% decline instead.
- Company claim Jul 26, 2026
“equity-free funding and potential venture investment to help startups overcome financial and technical barriers”
Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein
This is the center's own description of the program's terms; no audited figures on funding amounts or startup outcomes are available yet.
- Early Jul 26, 2026
“following the plant-rich Planetary Health Diet can cut heart disease risk by up to 28 percent”
Plant Based News, citing a presentation at ASN's NUTRITION 2026 meeting
This is an observational cohort analysis presented at a nutrition conference, not yet a peer-reviewed published paper in the pool.
- Solid Jul 26, 2026
“Vegetarian diets compared to non-vegetarian diets are associated with reduced risk of total cancer and seven specific cancer types, while vegan diets are associated with reduced risk of total and breast cancer”
systematic review and meta-analysis, European Journal of Epidemiology
Pooled from seven prospective cohort studies; the authors' own WCRF-based grading calls the vegan-specific finding only "limited-suggestive," weaker than the vegetarian data.
- Company claim Jul 25, 2026
“the first apo-lactoferrin available to manufacturers at commercial scale”
That's the company's own description of its market position; no independent audit of the claim is cited.
- Company claim Jul 25, 2026
“We have supplier protocols in place, and we systematically investigate suspected cases of child labour in our supply chain.”
That's the company's own account of its compliance system, not an independently audited finding.
- Company claim Jul 24, 2026
“a typical hotel meal produces three times higher emissions than a home-cooked counterpart”
cited via GSTC/Lever Foundation framing
This is an industry-sourced comparison in the article rather than a cited peer-reviewed study, so it's graded as an unaudited claim, not an established fact.
- Solid Jul 24, 2026
“The WFPB induced a clinically significant reduction in LDL-C relative to the SAD (−17.9%, 95% CI: −21.7%, −14.3%; P < 0.0001)”
Nature Communications, familial hypercholesterolemia crossover trial
This is a peer-reviewed, fully controlled feeding trial with a genetically confirmed patient population, though the sample is small (50 adults) and industry-funded dairy-consulting ties exist for one author unrelated to the diet arm.
- Solid Jul 23, 2026
“Reallocating existing producer support across food groups, with no increase in total expenditure, could raise fruit and vegetable consumption by around 10% in OECD countries”
FAO/IFAD/UNICEF/WFP/WHO joint report
It's a modeled estimate inside a multi-agency report that also flags a trade-off: shifting support away from staples could raise their prices before cheaper alternatives reach the market.
- Company claim Jul 23, 2026
“In retail measured channels, we have reached our near record high market shares in both oat milk and plant-based beverages”
Oatly's own reporting of its retail-channel data, not an independently audited market-share figure.
- Solid Jul 23, 2026
“vegan diets are associated with reduced risk of total and breast cancer”
A systematic review of prospective cohort studies, though the authors themselves grade the vegan-specific evidence only "limited-suggestive," since it rests on just 3-4 cohorts.
- Company claim Jul 22, 2026
“Consumers are recognising that animals matter and are willing to make dietary changes that reflect that.”
Karla Dumas, VP of farm animal protection, Humane World for Animals
The poll measures self-reported willingness, not observed diet change, so the interpretation outruns what a stated-intention survey can show.
- Company claim Jul 21, 2026
“partners in this 'rescue'”
No independent health assessment or no-breeding guarantee has been confirmed for the whales being moved.
- Overstated Jul 20, 2026
“the”
The Supreme Court read that same text the opposite way in 1995's Babbitt v. Sweet Home, upholding habitat destruction as prohibited "harm," a precedent this rule discards rather than restores.
- Solid Jul 19, 2026
“Vegetarian diets compared to non-vegetarian diets are associated with reduced risk of total cancer and seven specific cancer types, while vegan diets are associated with reduced risk of total and breast cancer.”
Two systematic reviews of prospective cohort and case-control studies, sound design, but observational, so this shows association, not proof of cause.
By claimant
- Alex Holst
- All G
- Animal Justice
- Animal Outlook
- Beyond Meat press release
- Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein
- California's enacted 2026-27 budget
- Ciaran Kohli-Lynch
- cited via GSTC/Lever Foundation framing
- Cornell-led study published in Nature
- Cornell/NYU researchers
- Costco
- DEFRA
- Dr. Hana Kahleova
- Economic Alliance Snohomish County
- Ethan Brown
- European Court of Human Rights
- European Journal of Nutrition
- FAO/IFAD/UNICEF/WFP/WHO joint report
- Food Impact Partners
- Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A.
- GFI APAC report author Dr. Dirk van der Kley
- Green Queen
- Jason Weller
- Karla Dumas
- Larsson et al.
- Lindt & Sprüngli spokesperson
- Maha Bazzi
- Marjorie Mulhall
- meta-analysis authors
- Misfits Health website copy
- Nambawan Spain
- Nature Communications
- npj Science of Food
- NYC public hospital plant-default program
- Oatly COO Daniel Ordoñez
- OMNIVEG study authors
- Orbem
- Parima
- Paul Shapiro
- (plant-based diet[tiab] OR vegan diet[tiab] OR vegans[tiab]) AND
- PNAS
- Savor and AAK
- Sentient
- Shedd Aquarium
- Stanford researchers
- Teimouri et al.
- The Every Company
- the Trump administration
- then-environment and forestry minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar
- Thomas Batchelor
- UK Government Policy Framework
- van Vugt et al.
- Vancouver Humane Society tally
- Wildlife and Countryside Link
How the Record works
Every entry starts life inside a daily brief as a "The check" line: the claim quoted word-for-word, the person or company who made it, and a grade for what the evidence actually showed. Before any brief publishes, an automated gate verifies each quoted claim character-for-character against the cited source; a quote that fails that check halts the whole issue. The Record is those verified entries, kept.
Grades follow one rule: the claim is graded as made, not the topic. A "99% cheaper" line from a press release is a Company claim even when the underlying science is promising. When later evidence settles a claim either way, the entry stays and the update is added; the point of a record is that it does not forget.
Every claim graded before you read it.
The brief quotes each load-bearing claim verbatim, grades it Proven to Overstated, and files it here for good. Get tomorrow morning’s graded claims by email.
Free, every morning. No guilt. No preaching.