Veggie burgers will be renamed ‘veggie discs’ under proposed new EU regulations on food labelling.
This week, the EU Parliament’s agriculture committee approved a ban on naming meat-free foods after their traditional counterparts.
Under the new proposals, which still need the approval of the full EU Parliament, veggie burgers will be renamed ‘veggie discs’ and meat-free sausages would become ‘veggie tubes’. There would be a ban also on the use of the terms ‘escalope’ and ‘steak’ for products that do not contain meat.
The move follows earlier EU bans on the use of dairy terminology for plant-based drinks and dairy-free cheese alternatives.
The French socialist MEP Éric Andrieu, responsible for overseeing the legislation, said the prohibition was just “common sense” and suggested the move was about respecting and protecting traditional food cultures.
But some MPs suspect the plan bears the fingerprints of Europe’s powerful meat lobby. The Green MEP Molly Scott Cato told the The Independent newspaper: “It’s obviously an attempt to attack vegetarian meat substitutes. For me, it’s number one a sign that the meat lobby is worried about a rapid change in diets, especially among young people – a lot of which is about their response to climate change.”