The European Parliament has ruled that terms such as “sausage,” “steak,” “burger,” and “schnitzel” will only be used for animal products in the future. This means that plant-based alternatives like veggie burgers will require new names that do not include these terms. ©Flower Burger – the vegan “burger chain” may soon have to change its name.

The law still requires the approval of the 27 EU member states – but we should be upset that the meat lobby has advanced this far!

Aldi, Lidl, Burger King, and Rügenwalder Mühle criticized the proposal in a joint open letter:

„The argument that banning everyday terms is necessary to protect consumers from confusion lacks empirical evidence. Studies (…)  show that consumers can distinguish between plant-based and animal-based products. A ban, however, would force companies to use unfamiliar terms, making market access more difficult and slowing down the pace of innovation.“

When words are confusing—or just plain delicious

To be honest, the jokes practically write themselves. Maybe “scouring milk” will be banned too, so no one accidentally pours it into their coffee. Fortunately, oat milk is already called “oat drink.” Before that, there were numerous cases of consumers being misled and accidentally drinking a plant-based cappuccino. How awful!

Will the end of Kinder chocolate be next? After all, there aren’t any children in it! What about gummy bears or chewing gum? They don’t contain any natural rubber from rubber trees (chewing gum usually contains plastic, like car tires!)

Language police with a sense of taste?

It will be interesting to see what creative names await us in the refrigerated section in the future. Perhaps something like “plant press, round, flat, brownish“? Sounds delicious! (And that’s exactly what the meat lobby wants!)

It’s a shame that only a meat sausage can be called a “real sausage.” Sausage is neither healthy nor good for the climate. So why does the EU want to advertise for it?