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A new French ordinance that says simply meat produces can use terms like “sausage” or “burger” is reheating debate in Brussels over what to call vegetarian meals.
Proponents of last-place month’s law argue it’s needed to avoid misleading customers about what they’re eating. But vegetarians disagree it are do more to baffle customers at a time when Brussels is trying to encourage more plant-based meat alternatives, and could even flout EU single sell rules.
The European Commission is expected to respond this week to a complaint put forward by the hall group European Vegetarian Union against the French principle, which says the legislation “creates an obstacle to intra-community trade by compel traders to deepen their descriptions in order to meet the requirements of the French market.”
“To threw it simply, if there are German farmers, for example, who want to sell their vegetarian steaks in France, they won’t be allowed because they are announced steak, ” said Sarah Champagne, a programme polouse at the French Vegetarian Association. Champagne added that “this heightens a problem of equal treatment between member states on the European market.”
The French rule censor calls like “veggie burgers” was pushed by MP Barbara Bessot Ballot from President Emmanuel Macron’s La Republique En Marche party as part of broader legislation on opennes and what information food products should disclose to buyers, such as the country of origin for sugar and all meat products.
The law came with heavy endorse from the meat industry, which has long campaigned against such vegetarian produce epithets in a bid to preserve a sphere facing challenges of declining incomes for farmers, precipitating meat uptake and increasing demands that agriculture take a more ecological approach.
In its recent Farm to Fork strategy, Brussels calls for Europeans to eat less red meat and promotes meat alternatives, quoting health and environmental reasons.
A spokesperson for France’s meat industry federation Interbev said the French law “represents real progress in terms of transparency and report for consumers, ” adding: “A product made from vegetal proteins shouldn’t be compelling disbelieve in the minds of consumers by presenting itself as an expression of the results of animal root, both in areas of its illusion and its nutritional assets … These produces are simply not meat, whether in terms of their composition, their nutritional importance or their taste.”
Members of the European Parliament’s agriculture committee are debating similar powers to restrict how veggie concoctions are described as part of the EU’s revamped Common Agricultural Policy. The discussion is still ongoing and the shape of an amendment on the subject will be decided later this month, a spokesperson said.
“The new French constitution is certainly have an impact on what’s decided on the EU level, ” one official close to the talks said.
The European Vegetarian Union also argues in “the authors complaint” that the French principle and any other same laws and regulations should “be put on hold” until EU law “provides for solutions relevant across the internal market.”
Brussels’ biggest menu industry foyer radical FoodDrinkEurope said it’s important that rules be harmonized in all the regions of the bloc.
“I wouldn’t like to have a decision of the French parliament that is different than the German one and then different from Italian one, ” said Marco Settembri, the president of FoodDrinkEurope.
There is precedent for France’s limiteds. In 2017, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled that terms such as “milk, ” “cheese” and “butter” should be reserved for animal concoctions, forbidding favourite almond milks and vegan butters from selling themselves as such.
Even if Brussels does adopt limiteds for meat alternatives, vegetarian radicals say that would create impediments in the immediate term as foodmakers adapt to new packaging requirements, but they are still optimistic about the future of the market.
“Of course we are very clearly opposed to the law and we’ve had a lot of contact with producers and retailers who sell vegetarian concoctions and who are a bit obsessed, ” said Champagne from the French Vegetarian Association.
“But we are quite confident, and so are the producers, that this market will develop still, ” she added.
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