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A few years ago, a debate was already underway in France to ban meat-related nomenclatures in vegan products (something similar has been effective with milk and vegetable beverages. To this end, it introduced a labeling law prohibiting the use of certain terms defining products of animal origin to name products of plant origin. Although it was in force for a while, the French Council of State suspended it, arguing that it had been developed in too short a time.
Since then, the government has been working very carefully to draft the project in accordance with the specifications requested by the Council. Thus, the French Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, stated that this new decree on products such as ‘vegan ham’ or ‘steak of vegetable origin’ was for “a question of transparency and honesty that responds to the legitimate expectations of consumers and producers”, and that there were no “misleading” claims to consumers.
The government has established a list of terms that may not be used to designate food products containing vegetable proteins and also a list of terms authorized to designate food products of animal origin that may contain vegetable proteins. However, this draft decree will only apply to products manufactured and sold in France, and not to foreign imports.
No more bacon or vegetable ham
In total, the list includes 21 bans on meat names to describe protein-based products, among which are such everyday terms as ‘steak’, ‘escalope’, ‘ribs’, ‘ham’ or ‘butcher’. In addition, there are 120 other names associated with meat, such as ‘sausage’, ‘cooked ham’, ‘nugget’ or ‘bacon’, which will continue to be authorized as long as the products do not exceed a certain amount of vegetable proteins, with percentages ranging from 0.5% to 6% (which is really a very low amount).
If everything goes ahead smoothly, this decree will come into force three months after its publication. The idea is to allow enough time for brands to readapt their labeling. They have also communicated that they will probably give manufacturers the possibility to sell all stocks of labeled products before its entry into force, up to a maximum of one year.
As expected, many animal rights activists have criticized this proposal, such as Catherine Helayel, co-president and spokesperson of the Animalist Party, who showed her indignation via Twitter: “Instead of attacking the words, this government should attack the evils: animal and human suffering, global warming for which livestock farming is largely responsible…. what desperation!”.