Are veggie burgers, tofu steaks or the use of yogurt pots for plant products going to be banned?
No, the draft EU law does not contain any ban on producing vegetarian or vegan food.
When voting on their negotiating mandate, MEPs rejected proposals to recognise steak, sausage, escalope, burger and hamburger as exclusively meat-based products and voted down amendments on reserving labels used for meat and meat-based products mostly for foodstuffs containing meat. These plans followed the ECJ ruling that determined that the terms ‘milk’, ‘yoghurt’ and ‘butter’ only apply to genuine dairy products, banning terms like ‘almond milk’, and tried to extend this decision from the dairy sector to the meat sector.
During the negotiations with the Council, MEPs also decided not to pursue their original proposal to boost protection of milk products and their denominations beyond the ECJ ruling.
Nothing will change for plant-based products and the labels used to sell them.
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