Irish farmers have welcomed tentative moves by the European Parliament to restrict “cynical” vegetarian and vegan food producers from using words such as sausage, burger and schnitzel to sell their products.
The European Commission is drafting new rules covering EU-wide agriculture and MEPs are using the overhaul to lobby for changes to how vegetarian and vegan products are sold to customers.
The “hijacking” of traditional farming terms was “deliberate and cynical” and could constitute “a breach of any trade descriptions Act”, said Irish Creamery and Milk Supplier’s Association (ICMSA) president Denis Drennan.
French MEP Céline Imart is proposing an amendment banning plant-based products being labelled with a long list of terms linked to animal products.
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It is the latest salvo in the long-running battle involving farmers, their representatives, the commission and vegetarian food producers.
The differing perspectives have also been aired at the European Court of Justice, which has ruled that plant-based foods can use terms traditionally associated with meat once consumers are not misled.
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The court has also ruled that non-dairy products cannot be described as milk and cheese.
Farmers have continued to fight for the naming rights to certain products.
Mr Drennan said the “hijacking” of farming terms “constituted an admission by the corporations involved that they were unable to convince consumers other than by such camouflage”.
He said it was “a matter of considerable irritation to farmers to see the very people and corporations who want to replace our naturally produced meat and dairy very deliberately using the terms they know are generally understood to refer to traditional dairy and meat products”.
Oisín Coughlan, climate policy analyst and former chief executive of Friends of the Earth, expressed bafflement at the ICMSA’s comments restricting vegan food producers from using words such as sausage or burger, and said any such move would be “a step too far”.
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“Everyone knows that vegetarian sausages don’t come from pigs and I don’t see how a vegan sausage or veggie burger is damaging meat producers,” he said.
“It just communicates that if you don’t want to eat meat there are equivalents available, and that seems fair to me.”
Mr Drennan accused vegan food producers of wilfully trying “to effectively ‘smuggle’ their own products past a sceptical public”.
He suggested that plant-based food producers use terms such as sausage, burger and milk “because they know that those terms already have a degree of acceptance”.
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He claimed food producers “simply appropriate the names of the very foods they’re trying to replace and supplant”.
“It’s unbelievably cynical and actually an admission that they know that they’re unable to convince consumers by their own efforts or merits,” he said.
