Just like the US farmers, EU farmers don’t like the way plant-based products are labeled
Manufacturers of plant-based meats in the US already went through this battle with farmers and the meat industry lobby a year ago. Now farmers in Europe are urging EU politicians to ban product names like “Veggie Sausages”, “Vegan Burgers”, ”Plant-based jerky” etc. Considering that plant-based industries are gaining traction and plant-based diets are becoming popular across Europe this battle between food manufacturers is gaining global attention. Veggie burger patties existed in Europe for as long as they have existed in the US. In fact, John Lenon and Yoko Ono popularized veggie burgers in Europe long before new age beefless patties hit the shelves of European stores. It is a bit ironic that a term “veggie burger” is even being debated in EU when most people still consider it an American staple and invention. Below is the audio transcript of an article by politico.eu worth auditing.
European farmers association claims that terms like “soy milk”, “vegan steak”, “plant-based chicken” are confusing the consumers of the meat-based products and as a result, the meat industry will suffer monetary losses and in the end harm the farmers. In one of the proposed amendments, it is stated that “meat-related terms and names that are currently used for meat and meat cuts shall be reserved exclusively for edible parts of the animals.” Plant-based foods are received well in Europe partly due to the global buzz but also because a flexitarian diet is not new in European countries.
Veganism is on the rise in Europe
The number of vegetarians and vegans is growing every year across the EU and awareness of more sustainable living is quite well received across the continent. It is going to be hard to predict what the final verdict of the EU courts will be but some European countries like France for example, have already passed similar laws in the recent past. Plant-based products that contained names like “milk”, “cheese”, and “yogurt” for example, have already been banned three years ago as a result of the dairy industry’s efforts to prohibit the manufacturers of plant-based foods usage of dairy terminology in the names of their products. Although the US plant-based industry has gone through the same experience last year, European countries are not in such a cohesive union when it comes to trade and marketing laws and regulations so the verdict from Brussels can be really painful to many.
Initiative to call burger patties, veggie disks?
Takeaway
If the ban does pass next week, plant-based burger patties will still be available in European stores and restaurants but they won’t be called “veggie burgers” any longer. We live in times when industries are changing rapidly and most of us have to adhere to those changes one way or the other. Perhaps calling the plant-based burger patties just meatless patties would make both sides happy? Time will tell.