Manufacturers of plant-based meat alternatives may continue to use words like ‘steak’, ‘sausage’ and other meat industry terms in France: a big relief for the vegetarian sector.
No ban
France cannot ban the use of common names for foods of animal origin for marketing products containing plant proteins. The French Council of State ruled that on Tuesday. Producers of meat substitutes can therefore continue to use terms such as steak, sausage, bacon or hamburger to market plant-based products.
With the ruling, the Council of State annulled two decrees issued by the government in 2022 and 2024 to support the French meat industry by banning the use of ‘animal’ designations for plant-based meat substitutes. Earlier, the European Court of Justice had also ruled that the country could not introduce such a ban.
‘Victory of common sense’
The meat industry lobby has long argued that using meat designations for plant-based products could mislead consumers. Manufacturers of plant-based alternatives say they use familiar designations to lower the threshold to consuming sustainable meat substitutes. For them, this ruling is a big relief.
‘We have just written the final chapter of a legal saga that will go down in history. This is a victory of common sense in the face of pressure from intensive livestock farming lobbies. We are happy to continue calling our products by their names, without compromise or absurdity,’ Nicolas Schweitzer, CEO of French plant-based alternatives producer La Vie, responded in a press release.
