‘Burger’ stays, ‘steak’ banned: EU clinches deal on plant-based foods

In a hard-fought deal, the Parliament dropped its bid to curb the use of widely used terms such as “burger” and “sausage”, but still secured a long list of restricted names.

This includes “meat” and 29 animal-specific terms such as “bacon”, “beef” “, chicken”, “wing” and “chop”.

Lead MEP Céline Imart (EPP, France) also managed to add “steak” and “liver” at the eleventh hour – the latter being a key priority to protect her country’s iconic foie gras.

Fish products would remain exempt from any bans, and the Commission could authorise exemptions for long-established terms like “beef tomatoes”.

Thursday’s deal is part of a targeted review of the Common Market Organisation (CMO) regulation and still has to be confirmed by the Parliament’s plenary and EU countries.

Moreover, any truce over meat names is likely to be short-lived.

The issue will resurface during the drafting of the post-2027 CMO regulation, on which the Parliament will speed up work in the coming months.

(adm, aw)