EU Parliament pushes for ‘veggie burger’ ban

The right side of the hemicycle, as well as some socialists and liberals, voted on Wednesday to ban names such as “burger” and “steak” for plant-based products.

MEPs agreed to press the Commission and the Council to act on the labelling of vegetarian products, with 355 votes in favour, 247 against and 30 abstentions.

“A steak, an escalope, or a sausage are products from our livestock farms, period. No laboratory substitutes, no plant-based products,” MEP Céline Imart (EPP, France), who led the report in the agriculture (AGRI) committee, said a day before the vote.

The push was part of a vote on a proposal to review the Common Market Organisation (CMO) regulation aimed at strengthening farmers’ bargaining power.

Imart’s amendment would restrict the use of seven “meaty” terms: “steak”, “escalope”, “sausage”, “burger”, “hamburger”, “egg yolk”, and “egg white”.

Renew’s Barry Cowen (Ireland) failed to secure enough support for a softer alternative that would only ban names “explicitly tied” to animals, such as “beef”, “chicken” and “hamburger”.

“This will create clarity for both consumers and companies and will remove unintended consequences, like accidentally banning the term ‘tuna steak’,” Cowen said in his amendment, rejecting bans on “format-based” names.

Tags: EU