What a wasteful non issue. Then again, wastefulness suits the meat industry and it's lobby very well
this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2025
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It seems the meat lobby is way too strong. ๐
Theyโve been beefing it up for a while now.
They don't mince their words!
Imagine people ordering a "lentil burger", "soy burger", "plant burger", "bean burger", or "chickpea burger", and receiving a vegan meal.
Can you imagine how shocked and deceived, perhaps even violated they may feel? The horror!
Luckily the European Christian Democrats protected European citizens from this huge and common problem instead of, oh I dunno, helping European industry with the energy transition or end a genocide. They have their priorities straight here.
Or maybe, just maybe, this is another attempt by a panicked industry to slow down the transition to a slightly less cruel food production system and these politicians are earning some side money?
EDITED for tastefulness of words. The only words I changed are the only ones that OP quoted and responded to below. The rest of the message was ignored. I actually learned a valuable lesson today, thanks Felix!
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(9 replies)
Damn I better go stockpile pea-based mince(d meat).
(If you haven't tried it before, seriously, do. There's so many (traditional) recipes with minced meat for which this is a 1:1 replacement, it opens up an entire new world of cooking for vegetarian/vegan kitchens.)
Beefsteak tomatoes would like a word.
Italian: cuore di bue French: cลur de bลuf
Good, product names should not be misleading.
Edit: I wonder what idiots think product names SHOULD be misleading.
100%. Misleading marketing is not the right way to encourage people to change their habits. It should not be.
To anyone dowvoting my remark, you're more than welcome to tell me why/what you're downvoting. At least, if by downvoting you wanted help me understand why there may be an issue with my comment. If not, don't change a thing ;)
Okay, here I go: Heavily misleading marketing.
How the fuck do you look at a meat substitute product, which all scream "I AM NOT MEAT, I AM SUBSTITUTE" from the packaging to the naming conventions like "Like-Chicken", and think this is meat. Please, if you do this, don't do the shopping for your household. Depending on the language, you might end up with cleaning products in your breakfast cereal.
Here's an example of packaging being confusing.
It is not clear without reading the ingredient label if the it's plant-based-chicken or plant-based-breading on the chicken-meat patty.
What the fuck would meat-based breading be like?
According to the keto people it's either bacon bits or pork rinds
So how should a veggie burger be called?
I agree. Burgers should be called tortured ground-up cows.
Who is torturing you?
I don't understand how that is the reply you went with. Why would a product having torture in the name be meaning it's the torture of the person who buys it? According to exactly what you said above, it should describe the product, which the person you replied to followed.
I'm throwing out the terms BURGR, SAUSGE, STEK as prior art so nobody can trademark them and everybody that produces vegetarian or vegan food can use them free of charge.
Some brands are already doing stuff like this. Here in Sweden we have "Ch*cken style", "Chick-un" etc. And some are pretty funny but does break these new shitty rules like "meat-free meatballs".
When has โburgerโ or โsteakโ ever exclusively meant meat from an animal? This sounds like political corruption to me. Somebody is getting paid for turning this linguistic gaslighting into law.
A โburgerโ has always been a mince patty of any kind and a โsteakโ is a thick slab of something. The default assumption may be meat, but it has never been exclusive.
Edit
OP appears to have a serious problem accepting facts. Itโs disappointing given the number of upvotes Voyager shows for them. I suppose nobody is perfect.
I agree that burger has always been agnostic, but steak should really just be meat. Etymologically, it was always meat roasted on a stake. Similarly, bacon should just be a specific cut of pig meat, not turkey. Both of these are intentionally misleading marketing - with bacon it's even so when they're using different meats, let alone vegetables.
Intentionally misleading people through advertising, in order to get more sales, is wrong.
And don't get me started on American "biscuits" that are not cooked twice. They're savoury scones.
I mean... I kind of agree with you, but at the same time... Come on, the things have green packaging and "vegan" or "vegetarian" plastered all over the print. Not to mention they're being sold in separate sections in stores, not where the meat is.
You need to really not be paying attention to get "tricked" by this.
No. The below are vegan sausages.
Show us an actual photo of that product and its actual packaging, not some random useless image from tesco's website.
This is a photo of the actual product from the retailer website ๐ Or perhaps you think the retailers falsify the photos of products they sell just for you?
Are they stored with the meat in the supermarket?
Or would you rather find them with the rest of the vegan products, away from the meat isle?
Are you for real now?
Was that a difficult question?
It certainly was a ridiculous one.
OK, that's fair. If you're the kind of person to wander into the veggie section of the store, see something with "burger" on it, and think that it's meat, my question probably did seem confusing and ridiculous.
Hypocrisy of vegans is breath taking.
And so is ignorance. UK supermarkets typically place vegan products, including vegan sausages, in the same section as meat products.
There are no ghettos for vegans here although judging from the hostility of vegans on Lemmy it may as well be better if they are kept away from the rest of the public.
Now tell me once again that this product is not misleading ๐
My goodness, mate, grow up! It's not about "ghettos", it's about the resolutions that even UK acknowledged (and, to my knowledge, hasn't rescinded) that require storing various categories of products (meat, diary, fish, etc) separately, to avoid contamination!
Your vegan products may be in the same area of the store, but they won't be mixed with meat products, so you have to be fucking blind or stupid to "get tricked".
And just FYI - I'm not vegan. Love me some good, crispy bacon with my scrambled eggs. But I'm also not a whiny idiot who sees a green "burger" box stored away from the meat products, turns off his brain, and thinks "ah, that must be meat!"
What a fucking utter tosh, especially after I gave you an example of sausages.
I am glad EU parliament recognised the issue and ignored "useful idiots", vegans or otherwise, trying to defend plant pulp industry ๐
Yeah but you shouldn't have to be ever-vigilant against advertising. The government is supposed to regulate against businesses trying to trick people.
Like the OP picture, the box says "cooks like ground beef", which is fine when you read it all, but the font colour is almost trying to hide "cooks like" such that at a glance you might only see "ground beef" and pick it by mistake. That's very borderline, at least.
And while major supermarkets have vegetarian sections, smaller shops might not have such an obvious separation. You can't justify the packaging by where the product might be shelved.
the font colour is almost trying to hide โcooks likeโ such that at a glance you might only see โground beefโ and pick it by mistake
Then regulate against that, not against calling them "burger patties", or something. I mean, the choice of the image is especially weird considering "burger patties" never mention meat specifically.
And while major supermarkets have vegetarian sections, smaller shops might not have such an obvious separation
They do, because you're not allowed to mix food products types in the EU. Meat MUST be separate from cheese, cheese MUST be separate from vegetables, etc.
Yes but are there regulations on meat being separated from meat substitutes? Would we even want that? I think it could be better to have all the burgers in one place, so long as I can clearly tell beef from pork from veggie. And should the laws on packaging rely on compliance with other laws? It's the other way around - if the packaging is clear and appropriate, where things are placed doesn't matter.
Cheese being separated from other things is more about hygeine. And even then, it isn't 100% - you can buy meatballs with cheese in them. Maybe there's some sterlisation requirement to make that okay? I don't know.
I agree that burger should absolutely not be regulated as a meat only product. Just like how a pizza doesn't have to have plain tomato sauce.
I did some digging to try and find a primary source, the actual vote is here (Ammendment 113, just search the page for "burger"). If you take burger and hamburger out of the list I'd have no issue.
Hopefully when the EC (ie the competent lawyers, rather than populist representatives) take their pass at this they'll trim the list down.
Yes but are there regulations on meat being separated from meat substitutes?
Yes, because meat substitutes are not meat, therefore they cannot be stored with meat.
Would we even want that?
We already have it.
I think it could be better to have all the burgers in one place, so long as I can clearly tell beef from pork from veggie
You already can. The veggies ones have big "veggie" letters on them.
And should the laws on packaging rely on compliance with other laws? Itโs the other way around - if the packaging is clear and appropriate, where things are placed doesnโt matter.
The sanitary implications of meat stored with non-meat products has much farther reaching consequences than a random person going "ah, oops, I accidentally bought veggie burgers". Which, again, can only happen if they don't bother looking at the package they're grabbing.
And even then, it isnโt 100% - you can buy meatballs with cheese in them. Maybe thereโs some sterlisation requirement to make that okay? I donโt know.
I'm not talking about ready-made meals or other meal types. I'm talking about "raw products". Things like "meatballs with cheese" are not a raw product and you won't find them in the meat fridge, they'll be with the frozen meals section - with the pizzas, fries, deep-fry veggies, etc.
You already can. The veggies ones have big โveggieโ letters on them.
No, not always. The OP photo is a good example of this, it doesn't have any word starting with "veg" on the front. What clues there are are white text on a light colour background or vice versa, meanwhile the "meat words" are black text. The meat words are visually promoted, while the vegetarian stuff is drawn in such a way as to encourage you to miss it.
Iโm not talking about ready-made meals or other meal types. Iโm talking about โraw productsโ. Things like โmeatballs with cheeseโ are not a raw product and you wonโt find them in the meat fridge, theyโll be with the frozen meals section
That's kind of what I was getting at, raw cheese is probably the main concern (because cheese itself is something that has to go off in a controlled way). Also, I do know supermarkets that sell raw meatballs with cheese in them in the fridge section. They're really good, although best eaten soon after purchase...
I don't think there is actually any regulation (yet) that would stop a shop from putting meat products next to meat substitute products. Eg, putting meat free burgers in a burger section. And I don't think there should be.
If you do know of an actual regulation, rather than just assuming there is one, I'd like to see it.
What about steak mushrooms literally their name, cauliflower steak, or something with a wooden steak in it?
After I posted this comment I looked up the etymology, the word "steak" literally comes from food being roasted on a stake. So, really, that should be the deciding factor - most steak we eat isn't technically steak because it's cooked in other ways.
Brazillian restaurants, the ones that come by with meat on a sword, should count as proper steak. Vegetables cooked in that manner could also be steak.
Most people in the comments are overreacting. Nothing is banned, just the right to name your product meat if it's not.
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