What do you call a product that is supposed to be a sausage substitute, but contains soya instead of meat? This problem – naming vegetarian meat substitutes across Europe - is being addressed by the ECJ.

The EU Court of Justice has already analysed the issue of vegan substitutes once. In 2017, a question was raised regarding the naming of substitutes for dairy products, i.e. milk, butter and yoghurt. At that time, the ECJ decided that only products with "real" milk inside, i.e. animal milk, could be marketed using terms like "milk", "butter", and "yoghurt". Thanks to this regulation, vegans are drinking coffee with a plant-based drink and not with oat milk as they used to call it.

According to NGOs working to popularise the vegan diet, this time the outcome can be different. "It’s crucial to ensure that consumers have accurate and transparent information about the products they purchase, especially as the demand for plant-based alternatives continues to grow," - European Vegetarian Union policy manager Ronja Berthold emphasises in an interview with Euractiv.

In 2020 the European Parliament rejected a proposal to use the term "burger" exclusively for animal products. A year later, France banned the use of names culturally associated with meat for vegan products. Names such as "vegan sausages" or "vegan chicken" were thus forbidden.

The French law was criticised by organisations promoting vegetarianism and veganism, such as the national Association Végétarienne de France (AVF) and the European Vegetarian Union (EVU). In their view, the new provision was incompatible with EU law. In order to avoid litigation, the French Council of State referred the case to the ECJ.

Belgium and Italy are currently considering banning the use of meat-related terms to name plant-based products. The ECJ’s resolution could therefore have a real impact on the way vegan and vegetarian substitutes are named across the European Union.

Source: Euractiv