'Veggie-Burger' Ban: EU Pushes To Prohibit Meat-Related Terms For Plant-Based Food Items

The term 'veggie-burger' may soon go out of commission after EU lawmakers on Wednesday voted to keep meat terms like 'burgers' and 'sausages', 'steak', and 'escalope' away from plant-based or vegetarian items, as part of an amendment to protect farmers.

To strengthen farmer's negotiating ground, the EU parliament lawmakers voted by 355 to 247 in favour of the amendment that will protect them against powerful companies in the food supply chain which may impose unfavourable conditions on them, news agency Reuters reported.

The EU governments and Commission will negotiate to draft the text of the final regulation with the Parliament backing a ban of terms such as "veggie-burger" or "vegan sausage" and specifying a meat-only list which includes "hamburger", "egg yolk" and "egg white".

Pertaining to EU's already determined definition of dairy items only milk, butter, cream, yoghurt and cheese qualify. Others, such as oat milk do not make the cut since they are not "products secreted by mammary glands", instead 'oat milk' is referred to as 'oat drink'.

Earlier in 2020, EU lawmakers voted against a proposal to ban the use of meat-related terms for plant-based alternatives.

German Caution

Major supermarkets in Germany such as Lidl and Aldi have a hawkish sentiment towards EU's proposal since they believe consumers will find it difficult to make informed decisions if familiar titles are done away with.

Germany, which is the largest market for plant-based alternatives, will be worst hit economically due to this proposal, the companies warned.

Nicolas Schweitzer, chief executive of La Vie, the French brand which supplies Burger King with plant-based "bacon", argued that the current labels do not harm farmers.

While talking to AFP, he highlighted that this "would make it much more difficult for companies to sell their products," the groups said in a statement along with two dozen industry groups, including the plant-based burger firm 'Beyond Meat'.