Veggie-Burger may still be called Burger

The EU Parliament has not approved the proposal to ban certain names such as burgers for plant-based substitutes. Instead, the marketing of vegan dairy product alternatives will be further restricted.

In the extensive statement on the EU agricultural reform, which the EU parliament passed last week, there was also a proposal to restrict designations such as sausage, burger or steak to meat products. This proposal, which was submitted by the European Farmers' Union, was included in the bill by the Parliament's Agricultural Committee. Europe-wide vegan organizations had called for protest and with it also success. On the market for vegetable milk substitute products, however, things are likely to become more complicated.

The EU Parliament announced for the vote in the plenum last Friday: "The MEPs also rejected proposals to recognize steak, sausage, schnitzel, burgers and hamburgers as exclusively meat-based products. They also voted against amendments aimed at reserving the labelling used for meat and meat-based products to predominantly meat-based foods". This would not change anything for plant-based products and the labels used for their sale.

Difficult conditions for producers of vegan milk alternatives

According to media reports, the marketing of vegan product alternatives to products made from milk is to be regulated even more strictly. Already since 2017 vegan products may no longer be sold as vegetable cheese or vegetable milk. This was decided by the European Court of Justice at the time, on the grounds that terms such as cheese and milk are only reserved for products of animal origin.

In the future, this prohibition will also apply to products that use terms such as "-flavour, -substitute, type or similar" to refer to certain dairy products. Excluded from this are long-established designations such as peanut butter or coconut milk.

This article is edited by Daniela Nickel