USA: USDA to ban meat and dairy names for plant-based products?

The American meat and dairy industry requires the vegan food industry to stop using product names derived from animal food like ‘fillet’, ‘sausage’, ‘milk’ and ‘cheese’.

Recently, US-American live-stock producers have voiced their criticism on traditional food terminology used by brands producing vegan food. The criticism has been addressed to the manufacturers of alternative protein products which have been created in labs.

Currently, the United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) is running a petition at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in order to inhibit producers of plant-based and lab-created goods to use terms such as ‘meat’ and ‘beef’. In addition, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is also campaigning on this issue.

European developments as a blueprint?

American cattle breeders will have heard about recent decisions and votes in Europe on the issue of the protected product terminology. Only recently, members of parliament in France have outvoted the use of terms like ‘vegetarian sausage’, ‘vegan bacon’ and soya ‘steaks’. The prohibition, which will also apply to vegan and vegetarian dairy alternatives, will be implemented by a change of the French agricultural law. In June last year, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg (ECJ) decided, that marketing products of purely plant origin by using words such as ‘milk’ or ‘cheese’ is no longer permitted.

Please also read:

Germany: vote on meat terminology for veggie products