The European Parliament (EP) has voted to ban the use of words like “burger” or “steak” to describe their plant-based variants.
The 355-247 majority vote is seen as a victory for livestock farmers who say the labels threaten their industry and livelihoods.
A full ban, however, is not imminent – or even certain – as the proposal needs the backing of the European Commission – the EU’s executive arm – as well as the governments of the 27 member countries to become law.
The plant-based food industry has grown exponentially in recent years, with more people opting for a meat-free lifestyle.
“Let’s call a spade a spade,” Celine Imart, the French member of the parliament who led the initiative was quoted by AFP news agency as saying about plant-based products.
Marketing plant-based products using meat labels “is misleading for the consumer”, the member of the conservative EPP group in the EP said.
Under the proposal, other labels like, “egg yolk”, “egg white” and “escalope” would be restricted to products that contain meat.
The EU has already defined dairy items as products coming from the “normal mammary secretion”. This includes products like milk, yogurt and cheese.
Oat milk, for instance, is called an oat drink on European shelves.
Greens and liberal lawmakers have criticised the now-approved EP text as “useless”.
“While the world is burning, the EPP has nothing better to do this week than to involve us all in a debate about sausages and schnitzel,” Anna Cavazzini of Germany’s Green Party was quoted by Deutsche Welle as saying.
Environmentalists have said that the ban would be a setback for sustainability.
The proposal has also drawn criticism from key food industry voices in Germany – the largest market for plant-based products in the EU, according to a report by the Good Food Institute of Europe.
Major German supermarkets such as Aldi and Lidl, fast food joint Burger King and sausage producer Rügenwalder Mühle have pushed back against the proposal in a joint open letter.
They said banning “familiar terms” would make it “more difficult for consumers to make informed decisions”.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz – whose party is a key member of the EPP – fully backs the ban. “A sausage is a sausage. Sausage is not vegan,” he said recently.
The French meat industry has also strongly supported the idea.
Back in 2020, a similar proposal was on the table but it wasn’t passed.