EU bans 31 meat-related names for vegetarian and vegan products
Vegetarian and vegan products are restricted from using specified meat terms in product naming across packaging and sales listings, narrowing permitted descriptors. Terms such as “burger” and “sausage” remain allowed for these products.
Change
The EU outlawed the use of 31 meat-related names, including 'bacon', 'steak' and 'wing', to describe vegetarian and vegan foods.
Why it matters
Packaging, point-of-sale descriptions and advertising that use meat-referential names are now subject to prohibition, creating a legal requirement to relabel stock and revise product nomenclature. Supply-chain, compliance and marketing teams must implement new naming conventions and update inventories and promotional materials to meet the rule.
Implications
- — Plant-based food manufacturers' branding and packaging teams must remove all of the 31 banned meat-related names from product labels and replace them with compliant descriptors before selling those products in EU markets.
- — Retailers' product listing and point-of-sale teams in the EU must audit and update in-store and online product names to eliminate any banned terms or face regulatory action.
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