Alphapuggle PieFedEU lawmakers push to ban term 'veggie-burger'
www.reuters.com/business/eu-lawmakers-push-ban-…
EU lawmakers voted on Wednesday to ban the use of the term “veggie-burger” and limit food descriptions such as steak, escalope and sausage to products containing meat, part of a proposed EU law to protect farmers.
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OmegaMouseHow exactly does this protect farmers? Are they going to have to be called veggie cylinders and fake-meat discs?
Protect farmers? As if the ingredients in plant based foods were not grown by farmers too. Fuck the meat lobby.
Hamburg Germany should demand their name be protected as a DOC link France’s champagne.
Yes, this will definitely protect farmers. I mean, it won’t, but at least they will FEEL like it protects them.
People eat veggie burgers for a reason, and it isn’t because they think it is actually meat. You can call it whatever you want.
Pat_RiotLike what is the problem? Hamburgers don’t have any ham in them.
a hamburger refers being in the style of, or a resident of hamburg Germany.
A burger should only be allowed to refer to the residents, or styles of, any legally defined Burg- ie a german walled town or fortress.
Hamburg should claim a DOC for ground beef, like champagne’s for sparkling wine.
Although that might be disingenuous, as a practice of making the minced beef steak into a sandwich wasnt developed until the dish made its way to america.
chaosCruiserImagine if the term hamburger was under the protected designation of origin, just like feta cheese and champagne. You couldn’t produce hamburgers anywhere besides Hamburg. The rest of the world would have to call them something else, like beef sandwiches.
Only sandwiches made by by the Earl of Sandwich are allowed to be called sandwiches. Y’all just eating savory bread cake.
Fun fact, there is an ancient Roman recipe for hamburger (though they didn’t call it that). Apparently it was a common street food.
The farmers and Big Agriculture are afraid. Meat is getting expensive and vegan alternatives are getting cheaper.
Veggie Vurger. Problem solved.
If what they did to milk and cheese is any indication, putting “burger alternative” on the packaging is good enough, so in the end it’s going to be a big nothing burger.
As a form of protest the producers could call their veggie-burgers something like “veggie- big uncooked round grain based edible rotund” which conveniently shortens to veggie-b.u.r.g.e.r. Simply make the dots between the letters tiny and you barely have to change the packaging.
Hope that’s legal and someone does that. Those idiots who made this law would blow a gasket.
Or just do it like they do with vegan cheese and call it “burger alternative” so it’s legally not a burger.
ThePowerOfGeekThe world is collapsing under the weight of totalitarianism, climate change, pollution, escalating conflicts, terrorism, tariff battles, supply chain issues, job losses, diseases, and various other huge challenges. And this is the bullshit they are focusing on?!
Great job EU lawmakers! /s
This is day-to-day shit politicians have to vote on. Went to my state capitol to protest as a senior. Blew me away how fast they were cranking through the votes.
“On proposal $X, \<very short descriptive blurb>, all those in favor?”
We see headlines like this because it’s so ridiculous. But it’s just the daily grind to legislators.
Who knows what concession(s) they got for bringing this dumb issue to the table? Maybe a concession on one of the issues you noted?
PetteriPanoWhat’s next? Soon you won’t be allowed to call it baby oil unless it’s made from real babies.
On a more serious note, I did order a “flexi” burger at Max by mistake. I thought it was a gateway burger with one patty replaced by halloumi. All I got was veg.
CybersteelThese the same idiots that railed against paper straws?
MudManNot really, it’s more of a farmer’s lobby protecting animal products from vegetarian alternatives.
Which as someone else says below is a bit neutral and doesn’t do much, but hey. They did it to milk.
Guessing it’s some bargaining chip with the industry on the wider legislation they’re passing? This stuff is pretty byzantine. European agricultural industries are constantly on the verge of setting stuff on fire. It’s a full time job to be even vaguely aware of what’s going on with them.
Are EU farmers dumb? Who mistakes a veggie burger for a real burger?
I nean… it’s a labelling thing, presumably. They don’t want milk substitutes to be labelled “milk” so they can’t advertise as easily as a milk substitute on supermarket shelves, and presumably the same is true for meat substitutes, except this goes at a glacial pace and they tried and failed in 2020 when it was still relevant and now they’re trying again even though nobody cares about veggie burgers anymore.
You are presuming this sort of arcane manipulation of collective weirdness into multinational legislation follows human logic, and that way lies madness. Best you can do is steer it ever so slightly so it at least does something in the aggregate that stops some anarchocapitalist loon from privatizing oxygen or whatever. It’s been a very weird century.
I mean, paper straws are not great for the environment either though. Better to go without or have a reusable straw.
hakaseGreat news! Do milk and cheese next!
They already did that. It’s all soy drink instead of soy milk, and it says “vegan alternative for cheese”, with “alternative for” in small print, or just “cheese alternative”. That kind of thing. It might have delayed some sales, but in general the vegan market grew anyway.
I’m perfectly fine with the vegan market growing - the more the better!
I’m just tired of accidentally buying congealed vegetable oil when I’m trying to buy cheese, and compressed bean patty when I’m trying to buy burgers. Making it more clear on the packaging will mean I don’t have to spend an extra five minutes triple-checking the fine print all over the package to make sure I’m not being tricked into buying something I don’t want. I can just grab the ones that say “burgers” and “cheese” with no worries and go.
Not to mention that this will also make it easier for those who are looking for congealed vegetable oil and compressed bean patty, meaning they’ll be less likely to accidentally buy something they’re morally or ethically opposed to.
I hope it’s real meat and not a small amount of meat blown up with starch, fat, water and emulsifier that just shrinks alarmingly as soon as it hits the pan.
I completely agree, but one issue at a time, eh? (Not to mention that for stuff like burgers a bit more fat is often a good thing!)
Akasazhaccidentally buying congealed vegetable oil when I’m trying to buy cheese, and compressed bean patty when I’m trying to buy burgers
You must actively trying to misread those as they are very clearly make, in their own ‘vegetarian alternatives’ securing of the shop.
From the way you write I cannot see how your reading comprehension would be so low as to ‘accidentally’ buy these products.
It was the worst cheesy bread I’ve ever experienced. And that was after triple checking to make sure it was mozzarella. I can’t remember where on the packaging it finally said that it was vegan, but it was anything but prominent.
Ever since, I get downvoted in threads like these, because I know from experience how much making the distinction matters to consumers.
If it says “cheese”, it should be cheese, end of story.
and compressed bean patty when I’m trying to buy burgers
Just buy ground beef and take the 20 seconds to shape it into a patty before cooking it.
I mean, I usually do, but when I’m hosting for like 15 people it’s much faster to just buy a Costco 20-pack. Also, I think “just don’t buy burgers then” is a pretty dumb take in response to the topic at hand.
Lvxferre [he/him]To be frank this sounds pointless; I don’t expect veggie burgers to be “disguised” as beef burgers, to the point a clueless customer might buy one when they want the other. So it isn’t protecting anyone. (It isn’t harming anyone either, really. Call it “veggie patty” and it’s still the same.)
On the other hand, I do expect people to put a lot of random stuff in burgers - such as cheaper / non-beef meat, fillers, etc. - so that would be better grounds (pun not intended) for legislation.
In order to protect farmers, UI designers will henceforth be required to replace the term “hamburger menu” with a more acceptable name such as “pixel-based alternative menu.”
“sausage” and “burger” describe the form, not the content. I can see why ‘plant ham’ or ‘plant bacon’ is a nonsense, but sausage can be filled with anything.
It’s not really nonsense if it’s clear to pretty much everyone what is meant. Nobody expects real bacon to come from a plant.
It really is stupid.
What’s the difference when calling something a chicken burger? It’s a burger made with chicken instead of beef. Just like a veggie burger is a burger made from plants.
Okay? I hope they ban chicken burger as well and mixing in ingredients other than 100% pure minced beef with a bit of salt.
I love (=hate) that when you could be fighting climate change, fascism, war or genocide some people have these kind of priorities (making more money).