No more cordon blur: France tries again to ban meaty language on vegetarian products

Terms such as ‘steak’, ‘grill’ and ‘spare ribs’ to be removed from plant-based foods if agriculture ministry’s decree is accepted by EU

France’s long-running battle over vegan food names has escalated as the government published a decree banning meaty terms such as “steak”, “grill” or “spare ribs” being used to describe plant-based products.

Marc Fesneau, the French agriculture minister, said the new government decree on products such as “vegan ham” or “plant-based steak” was about helping shoppers and “an issue of transparency and honesty responding to the legitimate expectations of consumers and producers”.

But some vegans and animal rights groups said it showed that the French government was favouring the meat industry. French farmers and meat companies have long complained that customers are unjustly confused by the notion of vegetarian “meat”.

France remains a predominantly meat-eating nation and is the European country with the highest beef and veal consumption per inhabitant.

According to an Ifop poll in 2020, fewer than 1% of the French population is vegan, and the word “vegan” itself had become laden with negative political associations amid rows over activism against butcher shops.

About 24% of French people identify as flexitarian and are cutting down on meat., but studies have shown that sales of vegan products in French supermarkets, including fake meat, are less than in neighbouring countries, such as the UK.

France last year became the first country in the EU to attempt to issue a decree protecting meaty words against use by plant-based products. But the government’s first decree was considered too vague and was suspended by France’s top administrative court, the council of state. The court has asked for guidance from the European court of justice before making its final ruling at a later date.

But the agriculture ministry has instead gone ahead and prepared a new decree, which it says takes into account the judges’ complaints.

The draft decree, which applies only to products made and sold in France, not European imports, bans a list of 21 meat names to describe protein-based products, including “steak”, “escalope”, “spare ribs”, “ham” or “butcher”.

More than 120 other meat-associated names such as “cooked ham”, “poultry”, “sausage”, “nugget” or “bacon” will still be authorised but only if the products do not exceed a certain amount of plant proteins, with percentages ranging between 0.5% and 6%. This would effectively mean that products marketed with labels such as vegan bacon or vegan cocktail sausages would have to change their name.

The decree has been submitted to the European Commission for checking against its detailed food labelling rules.

Guillaume Hannotin, a lawyer for the Proteines France organisation representing makers of vegan and vegetarian alternatives, said the term “plant-based steak” had been in use for more than 40 years.

He told AFP that France’s new decree still contravened EU regulation on labelling for the products, which – unlike milk – lack a strict legal definition and can be referred to by terms in popular use.

Brigitte Gothière, of the French animal rights’ group L214, tweeted that the decree was an example of “manipulation”, calling the French agriculture ministry “the ministry of meat”. She said: “Do people confuse motor oil, olive oil and jojoba oil? I think not. No more than they confuse vegan steak from beef steak.”

She told Europe 1 radio that the decree was “scandalous”.

Charlotte Minvielle, of the French Green party Europe Écologie Les Verts, tweeted that the government had made a priority of “defending the meat lobby”.

Catherine Hélayel, from the Animalist party, tweeted that rather than attacking words, the government should focus on animal and human suffering as well as the climate crisis and the impact of animal farming.

The decree will come into force three months after publication to give operators time to adapt their labelling. It also leaves open the possibility for manufacturers to sell all product stocks labelled before it comes into force, at the latest one year after publication.

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