Veggie 'burgers' in, 'bacon' out: EU rules on labels for plant-based foods
The EU has ruled that plant-based products cannot be called "bacon", "steak" or "chicken". <br><br>Impact Loop has the full list of what can be called what.
Can you call a veggie sausage a sausage? And a veggie burger a burger?
These are important issues that have been loudly discussed within the EU for a long time.
Already last summer, 29 words were on the European Commission's blacklist – from brisket and bacon to beef tenderloin and burger.
This sparked major backlash from the foodtech and vegan world, who argued that it was both harmful and unnecessary. Just last week, Impact Loop was leaked a letter addressed from a cohort of major investors to EU officials, urging them to scrap the proposal. But to no avail.
The EU has now put 31 meaty words on the chopping block, including "steak" and "bacon." Others such as "burger" and "sausage" are exempt from the ban.
See the full list at the bottom of the article.
Fish is exempted, lab-grown still in scope
Fish products are exempt from the ban, and the European Commission can grant exemptions for well-established terms such as beefsteak tomatoes.
Lab-grown meat products – which are not yet sold in the EU – are also subject to the restrictions, as we previously reported, but the legal framework to ban the term “meat” for lab-grown food is still undecided, according to Euractiv.
The agreement still needs to be approved by the plenary of the Parliament and the EU countries.
However, the negotiations were not just about plant-based food. The main issue was to introduce mandatory written contracts in the agricultural sector to strengthen farmers' negotiating position vis-à-vis larger players.
Here are the words that are banned if they are plant-based:
- Beef
- Veal (veal)
- Pork (pork meat)
- Poultry (bird)
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Duck
- Goose
- Lamb (lamb meat)
- Mutton (sheep meat)
- Ovine (sheep)
- Goat (goat meat)
- Drumstick (chicken drumstick)
- Tenderloin (beef fillet)
- Sirloin (sirloin steak)
- Flank (flank steak)
- Steak
- Loin
- Ribs
- Shoulder (shoulder/front)
- Shank (presentation)
- Chop (cutlet/loin)
- Wing
- Breast (breast fillet)
- Thigh
- Brisket
- Ribeye (entrecote)
- T-bone (t-bone steak)
- Rump (rump roast)
- Bacon (bacon)
- Liver
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