Meaty names for veg off le menu

● The French can say adieu to “le veggie burger” and au revoir to soya steaks after their parliament banned the use of meaty sounding names for vegetable-based substitutes because they mislead consumers.

In what is seen as a victory for France’s powerful meat lobby, the new bill adopted on Thursday will make it illegal for vegetarian food producers to use “steak”, “merguez” (a spicy sausage), “bacon” or any other meat-related expression to describe food that is not partly or wholly composed of meat.

Even vegetarian products promising to have a “bacon taste” will be out of bounds.

“It is important to fight against false claims,” said Jean-Baptiste Moreau, a cattle farmer and MP for La République en Marche party, who proposed the law.

In a reaction on Twitter, he said: “Our products must be designated correctly: the terms of #cheese or #steak will be reserved for products of animal origin.”

Moreau has argued that current labelling confuses consumers who may believe they are eating pure, high-quality meat instead of a meat-and-soy combination, or a wholly vegetarian product.

The change, which was tabled in the form of an amendment to a food and agriculture bill, will also apply to vegetarian or vegan products marketed as dairy alternatives.

It comes a year after the European Court of Justice ruled that dairy-related terms such as “milk”, “cream” and “cheese” are only allowed to be used on products made with real animal milk.

Failure to comply with the regulation will be punishable by fines of up to à300 000 (about R4.5-million).

The debate comes after British retailer Marks & Spencer caused controversy for selling “cauliflower steak”, a slice of grilled cauliflower with herbs, for £2 (R34) this year. One Twitter commentator noted that the mark-up was outrageous as “a cauliflower costs about 69p from a local veg shop”.