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If beef is what’s for dinner, European Parliament lawmakers want to make sure there is no confusion about what people are eating.
On Wednesday, the lawmakers voted 355 to 247 to define meat as “edible parts of animals” and to restrict the use of words like steak, escalope, sausage or burger for animal and not plant-based products.
That means terms like “veggie burger” or “vegan sausage” would be banned. The regulation is designed to give farmers a stronger negotiating position so that powerful companies in the food supply chain do not impose unfavorable conditions.
“Now, we’re not talking about banning vegetable or plant-based alternatives, of course not. But I think that terms should speak for themselves and should mean what they mean,” Céline Imart, a conservative German lawmaker and former farmer, said, according to The Associated Press.
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The proposal will go to a parliamentary committee to be clarified, and it will then go back to the EU executive arm and then to the union’s 27 member states for further negotiations.
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Not everyone agrees with the move. Imart’s colleague and Austrian member of the European Parliament, Anna Stürgkh, from the liberal NEOS — The New Austria party, said consumers are not easily fooled by food labels on non-meat products.
“A beef tomato doesn’t contain any beef… Ladies’ fingers are not made of actual ladies’ fingers,” she said. “Let’s trust consumers and stop this hot dog populism.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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