France will no longer ban “meaty” labels on plant-based foods
The country’s top court has ruled against government attempts to outlaw food companies from using terms like “steak” and “burger” on plant-based meat.
Vegan bacon by French company La Vie. Credit: La Vie
A long-running effort to ban the use of “meaty” labels on plant-based foods in France has now been finally squashed by the country’s top administrative court.
The rise in popularity of plant-based foods over the last decade has resulted in grocery stores across France - and the world - stocking the likes of Beyond Burgers, Impossible Chicken Nuggets, and Oatly oat milk.
But these animal-free products have not been entirely welcomed by some in the animal agriculture industry who see plant-based foods as competition and a threat to the future of the meat and dairy industries.
In France, attempts to discourage consumers from choosing plant-based food have resulted in a consistent effort to ban the use of “meaty” descriptors to describe plant-based foods. This would mean that packaging for plant-based foods could not include terms like “meat,” “steak,” or “milk” to help describe their products, effectively making it illegal to refer to the likes of oat milk or veggie sausages.
Following demands from the meat and dairy industry, the French government made global headlines last year when it announced plans to ban meaty terms including “steak,” “filet,” and “escalope,” on plant-based products. The move was reported as a way for the government to “placate” farmers.
The French law would have applied to packaging that includes meaty language, like this vegan bacon by French company La Vie. Credit: La Vie
A date was set for the ban to come into place, as well as proposed fines of up to 7,500 euros ($8,000) for any companies that broke the new labelling standards.
The plant-based industry described such a decree as unfair, arguing that terms like “sausage” are food shapes, rather than words exclusive to meat, and are used to help indicate to consumers where the plant-based products are to be used. Oat milk, for example, may not be milk from a cow, but the “milk” descriptor helps consumers know that it can be used in place of where milk is typically used - cereal, hot drinks, smoothies, etc. It looks - and functions - like milk, similar to foods like peanut butter.
But the government’s controversial decision faced several legal challenges, with the country’s top administrative court suspending the ban before it could be implemented last year.
Credit: Beyond Meat
Now, France’s Conseil d’Etat (its equivalent of the Supreme Court) has announced a final ruling that outlaws any attempts to prohibit “meaty” labels on plant-based food.
While the French government’s ban on “meaty” labels had already been suspended, this latest ruling finally annuls the government’s decree meaning that any efforts to ban “meaty” labels on plant-based foods cannot legally go ahead.
In a statement, the Conseil d’Etat specifically outlined that vegetable proteins can include terms that are typically used in butchery, delicatessen and fishmongers.
“We have just written the final chapter of a legal saga that will go down in history,” Nicolas Schweitzer, CEO of French plant-based meat company La Vie, told VegNews. “This is a victory of common sense in the face of pressure from intensive livestock farming lobbies. We are happy to continue calling our products by their names, without compromise or absurdity.”
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