[Food Law] Why can you say Vegan Burger but not Vegan Butter?

You can call it burger, even if there’s no meat at all inside.

The European Parliament rejected on October 23rd the request from farmers to label the plant-based products with terms different from burger, steak, sausage, usually associates with meat products.

The European Parliament considered that terms such as soy burger and vegan meat are not confusing for the customers.

It's "common sense", according to Camille Perrin, the senior food policy officer at the European Consumer Organization. "Consumers are in no way confused by a soy steak or chickpea-based sausage, so long as it is clearly labelled as vegetarian or vegan", she said in a statement.

Furthermore, terms like "burger" and "steak" for plant-based foods would “help consumers understand how to integrate them into their meals”, Perrin said. After the vote of the European Parliament, vegan products can be named after words that have historically been used for meat.

But it’s not the same for dairy products. Apparently, soy milk or tofu butter can be misleading.

The European Parliament voted to ban dairy-related terms for plant-based alternatives.

 This vote follows a 2017 ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) which banned the words butter, cream, cheese and yoghurt for purely plan-based products (with some exceptions, such as coconut milk, peanut butter, almond milk and ice cream).

The vegans can celebrate with a burger, but without butter.

Silvia Marchi
HFG Law&Intellectual Property