EU Parliament votes to restrict 'steak' and 'burger' labels to meat only

"Our data shows that almost 70% of European consumers understand these names as long as products are clearly labelled vegan or vegetarian,"

How fucking stupid are your customers if "almost 70%" can work out that a vegan sausage doesn't contain meat?

But honestly, the vegan sausages and steaks are not sausages and stakes, even if they are still ultra-processed like their meat counterparts. They really should invent different names that are used for these products.
- Why?
  I want something vegan that looks and tastes like sausage. I want to have an easy time finding such a product in the store. I look for a product that says "I'm basically a sausage, but vegan". I buy a vegan sausage.
  What's the problem with that?
- So we should call them vegetarian protein cylinders instead of sausages?

I'm a meat eater and I don't even see much point in this ruling. Basically all the plant-based steak or burger alternatives I've seen have been clearly labeled as such. Stores usually separate them from meat-based products anyway, so that vegans and vegetarians could more easily find what they're looking for.

The point is to protect the meat industry throughout Europe from the growing interest in veggie options. This is why vegan movements are screwed, "disgruntled farmers" will just get their governments to back them up because they rather lobby for the same old than change.
It's not much, but if, say, you are a fast food chain named Burger Queen, you might remove vegan options altogether because your very name can get you sued for offering anything that looks like a burger but isn't. Other fast food chains also have to consider whether simply eliminating the option with a black strip than coming up with a whole new category for them. It's an intimidation tactic that reflects the growing shift in political composition of the parties that make up the EU.
This is EU-wide, not just how good your local options are.
Also, this would otherwise be an open door to degrade your meat-eating products. In Denmark (and I guess EU), we'd been fighting for "cheese" to only be made of 100% cheese, or "juice" being 100% fruits. If you start to allow some of these ultra-processed foods being labeled as something vaguely like meat, everyone will suffer from falling food quality, as these products will sneak their way in.
- Weak argument, I don't think the labels vegerterian burger, or pea purger is doing anything like that.

Haha yeah awesome real problems getting solved by serious politicians here, guys! If you can actually get your hands on any real meat without paying an arm and a leg for it what the actual fuck are we doing here lads what the fuck are these fucking politicians doing???

The world is on fire, the economy is in the shitter globally, there are multiple ongoing genocides, facism is on the rise again, and we're wiggling our dicks around talking about whether you can call veggie burgers "burgers"? Are you serious? WHO CARES???

Is this bring your kid to work day and they let the kids do a vote for a change instead as a treat? Is this a joke?? What motherfucker is getting into politics to make sure "hey those damn vegans better not call anything a burger".

These poncy little briefcase-botherers need a hobby or something because this is absolutely the biggest case of dicking around on the job I've ever heard of. Ridiculous. Stupid. A joke. Pathetic. Childish. Vapid. Can we get some adults in the EU Parliament please?

Or.
We could tackle multiple problems at once. Why does it have to be a this-or-that thing?
- This is in a very literal way not a problem though. They were just bribed by the meat industry.
- Because resources must be prioritized. There simply are more pressing matters to tend to.
  This is a non-issue and should have the lowest priority as it's pandering to a lobby and will likely result in backfiring because more creative names will pop up, possibly leading to even more acceptance of vegan products 😁
- I'm paying 50% income taxes to pay for a bunch of cronies to chitchat about this bullcrap. Meanwhile they just scraped the money to shelter homeless people during winter
- I'm totally in favour of solving multiple problems at once.
  Personally, I do not view this as a problem. My issue is with the EU Parliament wasting time with this in place of anything that I perceive as an actual problem.
  If you think that calling veggie burgers "burgers" is a problem worth their time and effort, more power to you 👍
why are they doing this shit when there are so many problems in the world?
because they already participated in those problems.
- In reality, it's because the farming lobby is the biggest lobby inside the EU. This is an easy "win" that MEPs can use to get beef farmers to vote for them again.
  Same reason CAP will never be reformed.
Welcome to the European Union. Solving non-issues is what they do all day.

I’m really glad that we don’t have more serious problems to deal, than this.

Seems a bit idiotic to me. So what's a burger with veggie substitutes supposed to be called? Vegger?

Sure, why not
All in favor for the new vegger, say Aye
- Aye

How quickly Lemmy turns on the EU when they do something you don't like. "Vegan burger" doesn't tell me what's in it. Could be fucking sawdust.

How quickly Lemmy turns on the EU when they do something you don’t like.
It's almost like a thing can be praised for its positive aspects and at the same time criticised for its negative aspects.
“Vegan burger” doesn’t tell me what’s in it. Could be fucking sawdust.
"Sausage" doesn't tell you what's in it either. Probably pork, but could be beef. Probably some amount of rusk, also. It's almost like you have to check the packaging for other words.
Could be fucking marbles. Could be fucking Legos. Could be fucking quick set drywall compound. Could be fucking grass clippings. Could be fucking old math textbooks. Could be the fucking Queen's used linens.
Except none of those make any fucking sense. You know what does make sense? Fucking vegan burger.
How quickly Lemmy turns on the EU when they do something you don’t like.
That's how democracy works. Just because something does something good doesn't mean you have to ignore and accept the bad.
I live on Brussels. I know eurocrats. Corruption is rife, industry lobbyists are honoured guest, champagne is cheap at the mickey bar (named after the funny chairs) in the European Parliament. The head of the EU expressly required an apartment inside the commission where she enjoy extraterritoriality. The police cannot search there for her multiple corruption affairs.
Meanwhile our hospitals are shit, they just spent billions in F-35. They scraped the money for homeless people to be sheltered during freezing winter.
If you thought Brussels was less corrupted than London Washington or moskow I have bad news for you
It's an outrage that they even spent a second on such bullcrap. Sawdust isn't legally food and nothings stops you for reading the ingredient list.
Also don't hesitate to come see for yourself sometime. We have great waffles :)

Another shitty lobby demand became regulation just like that. Besides, protecting the label „burger“? Really? You know what I‘ll just call them sandwiches from now on. Fuck that.

It's an odd one, because we've had veggie burgers for as long as I can remember.
- Exactly. Veggie burgers are waaay older than any "plant based meat" products. Haloumi is at least 500 years old. I wouldn't be surprised if there were haloumi burgers before the word burger existed. And I can't imaging it took long after the word became used for meat sandwiches, someone also used it for a vegetarian variant.
There's at least two more votes at different levels before this becomes regulation.
- People don't really understand how EU works
Meanwhile Brussels city just scrapped the money to shelter homeless when it's freezing
You can still call them burger. You just cannot sell them as burgers. So unless you sell vegan burgers for a living, this does not affect you whatsoever.
- I mean, it'll be harder to search for "burger" on my supermarket's website to find vegetarian alternatives to burgers. They'll get more expensive because they have to relabel things. And my EP representatives have to waste their time on this instead of important issues.
- Nah fuck that. They‘re just sandwiches anyway. This might not affect me directly but it‘s still bullshit overregulation and should be boycotted because who is to tell where it will end? Next thing you know they prohibit gender speech as well. I hate everything about this.
- It does affect me to know that my tax money is used by these bunch of fucks to discuss bullshit like that.
  My grandma died of anemia because she was unfed in her retirement home but these bunch of privilege motherfuckers have the time to discuss vegan burgers? Bitch please
- A lot of companies sell vegan burgers, though.
  If they have a line of burgers, some of which have meat in them and some don't, what are they supposed to do? Keep two different brands separately, putting their fish, chicken and bovine burgers under one brand and others under another? Or just ditch the word "burger" altogether?
- It's affecting me that I'm paying 50% income tax to pay for a bunch of crony politicians to chitchat about such bullshit

I'm sure this critical decision will help us.

This stinks of (rotten) meat lobby.

I hope the meat substitute industry comes up with some kind of 'it's not meat' marketing campaign to counter this.

It worked for oat milk. I'm buying "no milk" all the time 😅
- NOT M!LK :)
A company here just calls everything Salmo'n, Chicke'n and so on, technically it isn't the actual word.
- That seems pretty scummy and misleading. I'm not a fan of the restrictive naming Iike in the article, but the name shouldn't try to mislead either.
  A burger is more about the form, same even for sausage, steak is more gray area, something like "veggie minced meat" or stuff with "meat" in the name is a no-no imo
I hope the meat substitute industry comes up with some kind of ‘it’s not meat’ marketing campaign to counter this.
Well, honestly it would be fucking time they come out with some name that not mimic the meat products name.
Praise the lord.

Cool still not buying dead animal

This is what seems crazy to me, surely no one is changing what they buy based on this and who is really so dumb that they were confused by the vegan sausage not containing meat?
- And even if, no one dies of eating a vegan sausage by mistake.

Congrats to the meat-farmers and -industry! It shows you are “winning” the game against vegetarians and vegans. Now you can finally stop your usual whining about subsidies and the like - everything solved eh?

EU parliamentarians are so far up their ass, they can’t even see the big ass VEGAN logo that is on every vegan meat replacement product

So why not call it a vegan patty or something similar. This is ultimately a regional issue as every region will hold meaning of labels differently.
- What do you think we should call vegan sausage? And why is it a problem to call it vegan sausage?
- Often they're specifically meat replacement products so being able to call it as closely the product they're meant to be replacing as possible is useful for them. Tells the consumer what kind of product it is and so on. Though that same thing can lead consumers to expect a different product to what they're getting.

Can we change the title to “meat industry has been nagging about this non issue for years now, so the babies are finally getting their non issue resolved?”

Ffs sell your product but don’t be a bitch about that tiny speck of competition.

that tiny speck of competition.
It's not that tiny anymore. The number of people choosing non-meat options is growing faster and faster as people realize that meat is expensive and bad for your health but the plant based alternatives are cheaper and good for you.
- Also bad for your health in the long run, because meat is heating up the atmosphere and outcompetes nature that would otherwise store CO2.
- yes but lets not pretend impossible burgers are a health food. they're great but just like cow burgers i wouldn't recommend eating them as a staple of your diet
This is going to backfire in a major way for them. Once we come up with new names for the vegan stuff that are generally accepted, the old stuff will look decidedly outdated.
- did it work for milk? it won't backfire.

Cause the world isnt burning and you can spend time to worry about this shite

I doubt it'll actually go through.

They're clearly labeled "veggie", "vegitarian" or "vegan", and consumers understand those labels to mean, at minimum, no meat.

"Sausage", I can see how you could argue it has to contain meat to be called a sausage. I don't agree, but I can understand the argument being made.

"Burger", however. Is distinctly different than "hamburger", in fact, we often substitute the prefix to fit whatever it is. (Not that hamburgers are made of ham, i know it comes from hamburg) Such as, "fish-burger" or "chicken-burger", so why would "veggie-burger" be any more confusing than "fish-burger"?

"Sausage", I can see how you could argue it has to contain meat to be called a sausage.
I don't; the defining feature of sausage isn't that it's meat, it's the fact that it's stuffed in a tube. If people want to grind up veggies and stuff them in a tube, why would that not be a veggie sausage?
- grind up veggies and stuff them in a tube, why would that not be a veggie sausage?
  Salad dildo
- If its just "sausage" alone I think there is an expectation that it contains about 10% Legally Meat™ though. Otherwise it should have some addition to its name to show it is something else.
- "Sausage", is a traditional name of minced meat stuffed into a sleeve, It exists in numerous cultures all over the world, and the principle is the same. So an argument could be made, that "Sausage" is inherently viewed as a meat product by default. And could be confusing for consumers.
  Again, I would also disagree with that argument, but that doesn't mean it can't be made. Just because we disagree with something doesn't mean it can't be made.
  I've never said something can't be a "Veggie sausage", like I said... It's clearly labeled "Veggie"
Its not always clearly labeled tho. Last year my brother took me to a burger joint in Minneapolis and only after I thought the burger tasted very weird did I learn that it was an all vegan burger joint. Not complaining, but it should be clearly labeled what youre getting, IMO.
- Cool so lets just put a label on anything that isn't vegan. Problem solved.
- It should always be the case, even for places serving meat products. Alpha-gal syndrome is on the rise due to exploding tick populations, so when a restaurant advertises "gravy" it would be nice to know what kind it is. Another frustrating one is sausages - so many poultry or veggie sausages still use pig-based casings and either ignore it completely or list the ingredient as "collagen" and expect people to understand what that implies (collagen casing is almost always pork).
- I think I know the place you're talking about. I took my daughter there because she is vegetarian, but I can imagine that being offputting if you didn't know ahead of time.

I'm a french vegetarian living in France, and I couldn't care less about this decision, the people arguing for either side are really wasting their time on this, who cares how it's called honestly ? As long as the products are available in store and the labeling is different, which it always is, and very clearly: veggie based product try their best to make sure vegetarian and vegans will identify them easily and will know without a doubt that it is not meat. Who care that it is called a "burger", "steak" or something else ?

I care that the government cares (or more specifically that it was bribed to do so by lobby groups)
Vegetarian or not, you should care about this. Propping up the meat and dairy industry is not in the interests of the public. This move is part of an agenda by the meat and dairy industry to deceive the public into thinking there's something "natural" about the modern meat processing industry. It's bullshit and if we had a government that actually worked in our interests instead of that of the fat cats, it would be the meat and dairy industry being forced to change their labelling, to highlight to the public the real costs of meat consumption.
- Yea I'm paying 50% income tax to pay for a bunch of cronies circlejerking about this crap
I'd like to add that "I know who cares" my question is rethoric, those who care are idiots wasting parliament's time.
Don't really care either way, but I shall point and laugh.

Veggie burgers have been around since the 1940s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veggie_burger

The Morningstar ones are damn good too. I think they're black bean based.
- Much better than the Impossible to eat burger.
- Ayyy morningstar

Should name products made from animals as they are: spherical gassed pig after a short, miserable life without ever seeing daylight. Or: salty fat from methane burping cows that could also have fed their killed off offspring.

What a great Democratic organ taking care of the true problems of the days /s

It's not like they can't do several things at once. Small things add up.
- Bullshit. I'm not paying 50% taxes so a bunch of idiot can whine about "fake meat".
- True, but of all the things to focus on, this is utterly ridiculous.

This is just stupid. Make it clear the product doesn't have meat in it. It's not that hard. Surely people can't be confused by veggie burger vs burger?

Current labelling is correctly understood by 70% of sampled population according to the article. That's lower than I would have expected.
- You underestimate how stupid the average person is.
- I went vegetarian two years ago and cannot for the life of me fathom how one cannot differentiate... That said, I'm from Sweden and products in other countries might be marketed differently so I wouldn't be able to say, but still.
I'd go a step further and require labeling meat as having come from an animal. So the source of food would have to precede the term, such as "cow burger", "pig burger". Can do the same for milk. Make all dairy farmers put "cow milk" rather than just "milk". It's way less confusing that way. Include a warning that the product contains lactose. Instead of a logo to signify vegetarian products, make one to signify animal products. Use the silhouette of a horse or something.
Yeah but imagine you want to buy some factory meat and realise at home that they didn't even torture animals for the patty that you bought? The horror.
- I mean imagine the confusion the other way around. Some scummy company was misleading you into thinking your buying a veggie patty but instead you bought a (meat) steak. Obviously nobody is happy about a product misleading them like that.
It's an excuse. A bullshit one. The real reason for this "problem" being addressed is that the meat industry is threatened, and lobbies hard to fight the plant based industry.
But they will lose, eventually.
I've seen vegetarian minced meat type thing that had it like this
^veggie minced meat ^product
Seemed kinda silly, you'd think being a veggie thing would've been a value add selling point
Never underestimate what people can get confused about. People will also still buy veggie burgers expecting them to have meat, after they would be relabeled eventually.

Fucking idiots. Almost nobody is able to decipher the ingredients including E numbers, but people are confused by "burger"

this has nothing to do with people being confused, and everything with meat industry being worried about their profits
- I know. Tönnies sei dank

It’s only a burger if it comes from the municipality of Cheeseberg.

Finally EU is back innovating! Oh wait 🤦‍♂️

Seems a bit strange to expect EU Parliament to be an innovative body
another useless legislation, like how in the US, klobaucher wanted to do a "flag" legislation.

Sausage will always remain a form. It is even more apparent in German you dumb Kackwürste.

Overpaid morons. You could put them out of work right now and it would only be beneficial.

Investing time and money into producing meat alternatives for the growing market share of vegans and vegetarians? Hell no, better throw our money on a dumpster fire of lobbyism and denial.

Just out of spite i will from now on refer to milk as cow drink.

Milk is filtered blood

Steakn't

Wait till they learn how long peanut butter has existed

🤦🏻‍♂️

When will they ban the name of the Hungarian dessert "Bird Milk" for being made of cow milk, sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs, instead of milk from birds?

Milk comes from women's breasts.
Legally, it should be named cow water.
- Bovine drippins

It's going to be fun to watch how this completely backfires on these idiots. People are not at all confused when they pick up plant-based meat alternatives. And they're going to be even less confused now that those meat alternatives don't use those bullshit terms. It's going to be even easier to choose a meat-free option in the EU going forward. Which is clearly what people want.

I can't wait to hear these whiny ass farmers bitching and whining that nobody's buying there death meat.

Same tact the meat lobbies used in the US.

Idiots.

Burger? Is the bun made of meat too?

Fuck I wish it was
- There was a burger in two chicken patties instead of bread being sold as a keto-friendly alternative at KFC

Thank you EU for working on the things that truly matter! Not since the fascists "tramezzino" have we had such useful policing of words.

On the upside, now I can confidently avoid anything labelled burger and sausage.

Does anyone have a link to who voted how? I wanna see which MEPs to be angry at.

Would also love to see a visual representation, but I believe this (point ~~2.22~~ 2.19) should be the result in text form (please correct me if I'm wrong).
- Point 2.19 355 vs 247
  Wow, more than half of CDU/CSU voted against it including Axel fucking Voss.
- You sure it's 2.22? Awfully many yay-sayers among Eurogreens.

IIRC they suggested "tube" instead of "sausage". So I guess we are now renaming them to tube dogs.

You tube!
- 2025: You Tube is now a product available from both Google and Soylent Green.

Alot of people in the comments griping but it's not hard to label a veggie patty a "veggie patty" or a "vegan patty" or a "mushroom patty" or to refer to the sandwich it winds up being a part of a "sandwich" instead of a "burger".

It also isn't hard to call things you put on yours feet made of rubber "rubber shoes" if calling it "rubber boots" is banned, because apparently boots are reserved for things made of leather now. Sure it is not hard, it just doesn't make any fucking sense. It does however make things harder, if I go to a web shop and can't find the boots I'm looking for, because they had to rename the product to a name that doesn't describe it as precisely.
Just let me order my veggie burger in peace, without having to double check what kind of "sandwich" I'm buying.
You know what's hard? Paying 50% income tax to pay for eurocrats to chitchat about bullcrap like this

To support Netherlandish and Danish pig farm dynasties.

Easy to get behind the reasoning behind their batshit behind this.

I honestly would have thought it were mainly the German farmers. They bitch and whine all day long while sitting on acres upon acres of land that is worth millions, while destroying the ecosystem, contaminating ground water, emitting fine particles, destroying roads without paying taxes for them, etc. Bunch of entitled cunts.
- Germany actually opposed this.

Freedom, baby. Live your best life.

Seems like a relatively pro-consumer policy for so many people to be upset about it. They're not banning Beyond burgers or mushroom steak. It's still going to taste the same and have the same distribution network.

They just have to alter the label. In the US a "slider", "whopper", "quarter pounder", and "baconator" are among the most popular burgers and not one of them needs the word burger in it's marketing.

Sure, it's not really solving a problem, but it's ensuring more informative labeling. Proprietary phone charging cables weren't a real problem either, but it felt like everyone was glad when the EU standardized it.

Last I checked it included 'sausage' too, but that's a shape??

Yes, 'sausage' is definitely used more for the description of a shape than for what out contains. It would make more sense for 'burger' to be used to describe the shape too, i.e. a synonym for the word 'patty', which makes it sound too close to 'pat', as in 'what cows leave in fields'.
The Dictionary Gatekeepers should also add the word 'sausagenous' to mean sausage-shaped, mostly because it's pleasing to say.
The claim is that people can be confused about what the product is if the meat and non-meat products are called by such universally descriptive names. I find this argument specious as all the non-meat stuff I see has some variation of ”meat-free" on the packaging in large and distinct text, so what they're suggesting is that meat-eaters are illiterate. Not sure that's the huge gotcha the lobbyists think it is, TBH.

Isn't that a good thing? Pretty sure it is well understood 'plant based meat' is absolutely terrible branding, Like extremely bad like what in the genuine actual fuck did you think was going to happen. You should recognize imitation branding as harmful to the cause. Oh is an entire ass industry protecting itself from imitation? You really need to question what are you doing when authentic labeling on food is something you are against.

"Plant based meat" might not be the best name, but this means you can't have a "vegetarian burger" on your menu in a restaurant any more.
You have 5 types of burger and then a "vegetarian sandwich in a round bun". It is 100% stupid, and 200% a move by the meat lobby to suppress competition. They claim it is to make sure consumers are not confused but it will have completely the opposite effect.
"Steak" I can kind of understand but "Burger" and "sausage" are a way to prepare and present food and not about the actual meat content. Fuck everybody that voted for this with a kackwurst (shit-sausage) but that word is now also illegal unless you are shiting meat...
- “Steak” I can kind of understand but “Burger” and “sausage” are a way to prepare and present food and not about the actual meat content. Fuck everybody that voted for this with a kackwurst (shit-sausage) but that word is now also illegal unless you are shiting meat…
  "Burger" and "sausage" are now, for good or worse, synonymous of a certain things more than a way to prepare and present food.
- """200% a move by the meat lobby to suppress competition"""
  Buddy the decision to imitate meat was to suppress competition you are just choosing sides of one rich asshole over the other. You are not moral. You could be but you don't seem to understand two wrongs don't make a right.
all the poor people getting swindled by the fake meat industry, so sad
So long as it's clear that it an imitation.. how is that harmful? There is no chance anyone is confused whether it's meat or not, these products usually have a big sticker telling you it's vegan as well. I've never seen a product that tried to hide that it's not meat, they literally advertise with it.
What an absolute joke this decision is. The whole point is to provide an alternative to meat, this is so clearly lobbying to protect the holy meat industry.
- The joke was imitation meat branding. Anyone could have anticipated the problems calling plant pulp meat instead of it's own name like no one has a problem with Tofu and it is often used to replace meat. It was arrogance that ignored the foreseen consequences of imitation branding one of the globes biggest industries.
  The justification seems to be 'the meat industry will be right' seemingly acknowledging wrongdoing.
You must be extremely privileged if that's the hill you want to die on lmao
- Are you sure you are using that right? Did someone say this to you recently and now you are using it liberally while not fully grasping what justifies such a thing? Because sharing an opinion on lemmy is exact same privilege you have. Acting like you are entitled to imitate an entire industry instead of standing on your own feet...? I can see why someone said this to you recently.

Cutting red tape, huh?

I wonder what this means the things like tuna steaks

Meanwhile, if it contains 5% percent meat, they can still call them sausages and burger...

representing the people once again 😌🙃

Meanwhile they just scrapped the money for below zero temperature homeless shelter.
Eurocrats don't pay taxes

Only beef should be burgers, chicken is sandwiches.

Super dumb, very American english take. In Australia anything you put in a burger bun is a burger.
\ Beef burger ✅
\ Chicken burger ✅
\ Mushroom burger ✅
\ Halloumi burger ✅
\ Veggie burger ✅
What if there's no bread? Is it a still a sandwich? Same with the beef

I'd argue that if a hamburger is not made in Hamburg, it should not be able to be named anything better than "sparkling patty disher"

Good only cucumber shaped meats can be called sausage!

The gods knows the horrors that would fall upon humanity if plant based foods could be called the same as plant shaped meats.

this is the most american thing i've ever heard from the eu

Why would vegans want things named after meat products? Hmmmmmmm.

What do vegans even have to do with this? This stuff is marketed at the average family.

https://youtu.be/fyleI2p-JMY