Belgium to keep ‘meaty’ labels on vegan foods
The Belgium Government has ruled that ‘meaty’ vegan labels are not likely to be banned as they “do not mislead” consumers.
The proposed label changes, which were advocated for by meat industry trade bodies like General Farmers’ Syndicate, the Federation of Meat Producers, Farmer’s Union and the Union of Butchers, were set aside as delegates failed to rule ‘meaty’ labels as confusing.
‘Meaty’ labels for plant based foods include words like chicken, ham, steak and bacon, as well as many more.
Following three years of debate, Belgium’s Economy Minister Pierre-Yves Dermagne said that there was “still great dissonance among the various stakeholders”, according to Belgium news website Nieuwsblad.
Green Party MP Barbara Creemers said: “We feared that very restrictive guideline regarding permitted vegetarian names would seriously compromise the accessibility and promotion of vegetarian food.”
This comes as France drafted a decree to ban meat labels from plant based foods, which included words like ‘steak’, ‘ham’ and ‘butcher’ but did not ban the word ‘burger’.
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