The European Union Parliament has voted in favour of a controversial amendment that would prevent vegetarian, vegan, and even cell-cultured (lab-grown) meat products from using established terms like “burger,” “sausage,” and “steak.”
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The regulation passed by a vote of 355 to 247. While the measure still requires approval from the EU Commission and member state governments before becoming law, if implemented, it would reserve terms like “steak,” “burger,” “sausage,” and even “egg white” exclusively for products containing actual meat. The legislation is intended to cover all names currently used for meat products.
This proposed ban poses a significant challenge to the rapidly growing alternative protein industry:
- Plant-Based Products: The immediate impact would force food makers to find alternative labels for plant-based staples like veggie burgers and meatless sausages.
- Lab-Grown Meat: The bill explicitly states that meaty terms “shall exclude cell-cultured products.” This is a major hurdle for the burgeoning lab-grown meat industry, which is banking on using familiar language—such as “steak” or “hamburger”—to gain consumer acceptance once it perfects its products. Finding appealing, non-meat-based names for these novel foods could slow market adoption.
The restriction was proposed with the stated goal of supporting European livestock farmers and was largely backed by an increasingly conservative parliament.
However, the ban has faced strong opposition from a wide range of groups, including supermarkets, climate groups, and major corporations like Burger King. A similar measure was defeated in 2020.
The EU does have a precedent for such naming restrictions, having already banned the use of dairy terms like “milk” or “cheese” for plant-based alternatives. The debate now moves to the next stages of the EU legislative process, where the final fate of the “veggie burger” name will be decided.
