A sigh of relief for plant-based products in Europe, at least for the moment. The attempt to ban the use of terms such as “burger” and “sausage” for 100% plant-based foods ran aground yesterday during the trilogue between the Council, Parliament and the European Commission. A partial victory, of course, but one that gives precious time to continue promoting the food transition without absurd linguistic limitations, as Lav underlines.
Let’s take a step back. For years, the European livestock industry has been pressing institutions to prevent plant products from using terminologies traditionally associated with meat. The French MEP Céline Imart had become the standard-bearer of this crusade, proposing to reserve words like “burger” or “sausage” exclusively for products of animal origin.
The pretext? Protect consumers from confusion. The reality? Protect an industry that sees the rise of plant-based products as a real threat to its profits.
The failure of the trilogue and Denmark’s no
During yesterday’s meeting on the agricultural market regulation, Imart’s proposal failed to gather sufficient consensus. A decisive blow came from Denmark, which made it clear that it had no mandate to comply with this senseless ban. Other member states followed the same line, recognizing the absurdity of a purely ideological battle.
This is not the first setback for veto supporters. In 2024, the European Court of Justice had already ruled that no state can prevent the use of these terms on vegan labels, warning that the ban would paradoxically create more confusion for consumers rather than protect them.
As Manfred Weber, leader of the European People’s Party, rightly stated:
People are not stupid, consumers are not stupid when they go to the supermarket and buy their products.
And in fact, numerous studies show that the growth of the plant-based market arises from ever-increasing awareness, not from misleading packaging.
If we want to talk about misleading labels, let’s look instead at products of animal origin: packages that show happy animals grazing, when the reality of intensive farming is made up of suffering, confinement and conditions far removed from those bucolic images.
LAV calls this result “a slim victory”, and it is difficult to blame them. The threat has not disappeared, the Cypriot presidency will in fact resume negotiations in 2026. However, this year of truce is essential to continue working on the food transition, educate consumers and demonstrate that the future of food also passes (and increasingly) through plant-based options.
