this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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When is a sausage not really a sausage? Ask the meat lobby (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 23 hours ago by Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip to c/world@lemmy.world
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Most of what you eat is sausages. I mean, if we’re going to get literal about it. Sausage derives from the Latin salsicus, which means “seasoned with salt”. You might think of a sausage as a simple thing, but on this reading it is everything and nothing, a Borgesian meta-concept that retreats as you approach it.

From another perspective, a sausage is an offal-filled intestine, or the macerated parts of an electrocuted or asphyxiated pig or other animal – generally parts that you wouldn’t knowingly eat – mixed with other ingredients that, in isolation, you might consider inedible. For some reason, it is seldom marketed as such.

But to the legislators of the EU, a sausage can now have only one meaning: a cylindrical object containing meat. Never mind that cylindrical objects containing no meat have been marketed under names such as “Glamorgan sausage” (selsig Morgannwg) for at least 150 years. Never mind that even Germans once felt the need to call animal sausages mettwurst, to distinguish them from other kinds. Never mind that almost everyone knows what “veggie sausage”, “vegan sausage” or “plant-based sausage” mean. A recent survey of 20,000 Dutch people found that 96% are not confused by such terms, which is probably a higher percentage than those who can readily distinguish left from right. The consumer must at all costs be protected from an imaginary threat.

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[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 3 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

If the qualifier is only meat, nothing can be called a sausage with all the filler and other ingredients they're adding these days.

And in the end, it'll be in the supermarket with a label saying VEGGIE alternative for a SAUSAGE so it's all legally ok and nothing much changes

[–] freeman@sh.itjust.works 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

That's a dishonest representation of the qualifier. It's must have meat not must have only meat.

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 1 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

The proposal states that “meat” means exclusively the edible parts of an animal and sets a list of 29 “forbidden” words for plant-based products, such as “beef”, “chicken”, “pork”, “bacon” and descriptive terms such as “breast”, “wings”, “drumsticks” or “ribs”

Reads like only meat.

[–] bramkaandorp@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Reads to me as saying that it must contain meat, not that it must only contain meat.

So any sausage with meat as one of its ingredients would count, but anything that doesn't contain any meat would not.

Which, to me, is ridiculous, because most vegetarian options have a variation on the word "replacement" on the packaging.

This is just the meat industry throwing it's weight around.

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

That'd be crazy. It would mean 90% tofu and 10% leftover meat can be put in the meat section.

[–] bramkaandorp@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

Maybe? I don't know the specific rules, so I just went the quotes text.

But yeah, that would be crazy.

[–] freeman@sh.itjust.works 1 points 13 hours ago

Why are you quoting the definition of meat? Your previous comment was about sausage.

If the qualifier is only meat, nothing can be called a sausage with all the filler and other ingredients they’re adding these days.

Which the proposal defines as:

But to the legislators of the EU, a sausage can now have only one meaning: a cylindrical object containing meat.

Nowhere does it say only meat.