France’s long-running battle over vegan food names has escalated as the government published a decree banning meaty terms such as “steak”, “grill” or “spare ribs” being used to describe plant-based products, reports The Guardian.
Marc Fesneau, the French agriculture minister, said the new government decree on products such as “vegan ham” or “plant-based steak” was about helping shoppers and “an issue of transparency and honesty responding to the legitimate expectations of consumers and producers”.
But some vegans and animal rights groups said it showed that the French government was favouring the meat industry. French farmers and meat companies have long complained that customers are unjustly confused by the notion of vegetarian “meat”.
France remains a predominantly meat-eating nation and is the European country with the highest beef and veal consumption per inhabitant.
According to an Ifop poll in 2020, fewer than 1% of the French population is vegan, and the word “vegan” itself had become laden with negative political associations amid rows over activism against butcher shops.
About 24% of French people identify as flexitarian and are cutting down on meat, but studies have shown that sales of vegan products in French supermarkets, including fake meat, are less than in neighbouring countries, such as the UK.
France last year became the first country in the EU to attempt to issue a decree protecting meaty words against use by plant-based products. But the government’s first decree was considered too vague and was suspended by France’s top administrative court, the council of state.