Plant-based manufacturers can keep using meat-related names, but this victory for consumer transparency could risk market fragmentation.
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00:00Is it steak or is it not?
00:07The European Court of Justice has ruled that a member state cannot prohibit manufacturers
00:11of plant-based meat substitutes from calling their product veggie burger or vegan filet
00:17without adopting a legal definition of that product.
00:23Sometimes made from soy or wheat, these products can therefore remain on the shelves of supermarkets
00:28under these names.
00:34Shoppers have different opinions on the matter.
00:37Maybe it's a bit contradictory in the way that chicken is meat, you know, and if they
00:45are plant-based then they should be called in another way or have another type of name.
00:58This ruling contradicts a French regulation that prohibits manufacturers of plant-based
01:08meat substitutes from using the words steak, escalope or ham.
01:16But what does this decision mean for the European consumer?
01:22Vegan and vegetarian associations hail this as a victory and argue that it is in the best
01:26interest of consumers.
01:30Consumers are not confused about the use of these terms, but we do have some studies
01:34stating that consumers will be more confused with new names that we are not used to.
01:39So using these names is also about the consumer protection.
01:45The meat industry, on the other hand, should not be impacted according to associations
01:50defending the industry's interests.
01:55This representative of the sector nevertheless warns against a possible division in the common
02:00market if each member state adopts a different definition of the same product.
02:11There is a vacuum at the regulatory level and this vacuum is now in the hand of member
02:18states that can make their own piece of legislation and this can lead to a fragmentation of the
02:25market. That's my main matter of concern nowadays.
02:30So the battle is not over. In theory, a member state can still adopt a legal definition of
02:35a steak as demanded by the EU court as a prerequisite and then ban the term vegetarian steak and
02:40other similar names for substitutes from their labels.