EU parliament: 'Do we have to stop saying beefsteak tomatoes and coconut milk now?'

Reactions from foodtech entrepreneurs came quickly after Wednesday’s vote in the European Parliament.

"Crazy," "stupid" and "worrying" were some of the words used by Peter Bolinder, CEO of Swedish foodtech firm Proteinish, Lisa Laurell of mung bean foodtech startup Oh Mungood, and Ramkumar Nair, founder of hybrid meat company Smaqo.

The decision also raises questions about long-established expressions for plant-based products that borrow from the animal world.

Beefsteak tomatoes and coconut milk

Sorosh Tavakoli, who runs the Swedish vegan cheese developer Stockeld Dreamery from New York, wonders just how far language regulation should go.

"Can we still say beef tomato? Can we say salmon burger? It all just feels so silly," he wrote in a text message to Impact Loop.

Måns Ullerstam, CEO of foodtech VC firm Kale United, which invests in a range of foodtech startups, takes it a step further:

"What about words like ‘peanut butter’ and ‘coconut milk’? Those should be banned too – they also suggest there’s milk involved," he told Impact Loop.

Emil Gustafsson, who runs Swedish foodtech firm Foodbeat together with Gustav Johansson, also questions how such a ban could even work in practice:

"Coconut milk has been called that for decades. And what happens with hybrid products that are 50% meat and 50% plants – does a single gram of meat make it legal to call it a burger again?" he wrote on LinkedIn, adding:

“Who actually benefits from this? One argument is that it protects farmers, but the oats in oat milk come from farmers too.”

Is this really a political issue?

Bodil Sidén, co-founder of Danish foodtech investor Kost Capital, questions why politicians are even spending time on the issue.

"To be honest, it’s embarrassing that EU politicians are wasting time debating what you can call a plant-based sausage. With a third of all food being wasted and 25% of our carbon emissions tied to that – not to mention the paradox of obesity and hunger – there are far more important things to focus on," she wrote in a text to Impact Loop and continued:

"Put that energy into cutting food waste, improving health and supporting innovation that makes food more sustainable, instead of bickering over labels."

What happens next?

The full proposal approved by the European Parliament includes a list of terms politicians want to restrict for plant-based products:

• Steak
• Escalope
• Sausage
• Burger
• Hamburger
• Egg yolk
• Egg white

The final wording of the proposed ban is not yet decided, and it’s too early to say how Europe’s food industry will be affected.

The proposal now moves on to negotiations between the EU Council (representing member states), the European Parliament, and the European Commission.

According to the EU press service, these talks are set to begin next week, on 14 October.

Once the institutions agree on the final text, the law must be formally adopted again by both the Parliament and the Council. How long that process takes depends on how quickly the parties can reach a compromise.