The problem is that on the packaging Burger will be written with huge letters and then vegan is metioned somewhere in a corner. I bought cheese that was not cheese :)) Imagine my disappointment.
In your example it says “with soy protein” which seems to imply that soy protein is used in conjunction with the chicken type. And the text is smaller so it makes it seem like maybe they augment a smaller portion with soy, like ethanol used in E10 benzin.
Granted, it is rather obvious in Germany as you said because those foods are most typically purchased from a section dedicated to them and not mixed with others.
But the point I’m making is that even your example image was not clear.
> In your example it says “with soy protein” which seems to imply that soy protein is used in conjunction with the chicken type. And the text is smaller so it makes it seem like maybe they augment a smaller portion with soy, like ethanol used in E10 benzin.
This move will expand the public's belief that regulation means "a ridiculous incursion of rights," leading to greater belief that society is better off without regulation.
It depends, its a war between the right to know what you are eating without studying it thoroughly first and the right to claim things as something that they are not.
In Europe people tend to be the first kind and see the government as tool for protecting them from the second kind.
Veggie burger is the flashy headline that makes you click stuff. What actually is happening is that they are creating a framework for stricter definitions(for many things, like sausages) that will be adopted by 27 countries in 24 different languages.
The "veggie burger" can be in the text of Malta or Ireland but who knows. They are talking about protecting some words. There are so many languages in EU, everyone calls these things differently. There's something similar against calling things not made from dairy milk or yogurt.
Vegans are infuriated apparently, maybe they can join forces with the libertarians and topple the EU so they can fight among themselves in peace.
There is a long history of legal use of words about what foods are. Like what you are allowed to call 'butter' or 'beer'. There's also the regional names like parmesan and champagne. This looks like its following that established norm.
Yeah but like Hamburger is not from Hamburg though... Maybe you could say Hamburg steak or something but Hamburgers as we know them almost certainly originated in the US.
I don't think accurate food labeling is a bad thing but the contension shouldn't really be around burger to me that's just a pressed shape of cruft but the veggie part. Because Veggie I feel like implies vegatable but like soy-protein or bean mush or impossible burger all could be classified as a veggie burger but like they are very different things and have very different additives. I don't think we are crushing people or industry by trying to accurately label foods though.
I do think that the protectinism to regional foods confusing though. It would be interesting if you could make "feta" elsewhere than in greece for example, but maybe like the originating countries could get a special sigil rather than an exclusively protected food name when its basically indistingusiable to all but a connoisseur.
The butter is my favorite exemple: peanut butter, cacao butter, Vitellaria butter…
"What food are" actually refer to what people use that word for and not necessarily what is the strict scientific definition. I’m sure most knows what’s a "plant burger", although I concede the current law is confusing as you can call an egg or diary many based patty as such.
I'd call it a net negative. A lot of regulations are straight up good - clean drinking water, food safety, no sketchy chemicals in clothes, electric appliances that don't catch on fire, the GDPR, consumer protections etc etc are all unequivocally good things.
Things like this bring the very useful tool of regulations into disrepute.
> The EU has already defined dairy items milk, butter, cream, yoghurt and cheese as "products secreted by mammary glands"
I think they should just label things more explicitly like this - accelerate veganism 100x when people in the supermarkets have to choose between “pressed soybeans” and “mammary gland secretions”.
We're going to see more ridiculous overreach like this as alternatives to meat consumption get more popular. (I say ridiculous because no one is getting confused by "veggie-burger")
> The EU has already defined dairy items milk, butter, cream, yoghurt and cheese as "products secreted by mammary glands", meaning that what might otherwise be called oat milk is instead generally referred to as oat drink.
Meanwhile, back in 1755:
> MILK. n.s. [meelc, Saxon; melck, Dutch.]
> 2. Emulsion made by contusion of seeds.
> Pistachoes, so they be good and not musty, joined with almonds in almond milk, or made into a milk of themselves, like unto almond milk, are an excellent nourisher.
I love strict product labeling rules and laws. Thanks to those kinds of regulations, people like my mom can buy stuff knowing that it won't hurt them unexpectedly. I'm frustrated with the status quo of being able to say "100% real chicken" in your 50% by weight chicken nuggets. It pisses me off that saying "gluten free" on products that should never contain gluten improves sales, and I find that a poor excuse to allow that. I'm tired of all the puffery that claims in big bold letters "Best product" and then in a tiny print somewhere else "compared to a fake product we only ran in a small community to invent this accolade"
Unfortunately, this "article" provides zero actual information. No actual text of what was voted on. No context for when or where "veggie burger" is supposedly banned.
So great, can't find out if there might be nuance to this issue, can't find out any arguments, can't even find the actual words which were voted on. Oh, actually looks like this was a vote for an amendment? No actual law has been voted on yet.
That has not stopped anyone here from makings broad and sweeping generalizations, as usual.
Vegetables are delicious. I wish vegan options would lean into this instead of trying to be fake meat. IMO grilled mushrooms are tastier than grilled goop pressed into burger form.
Some of modern vegetarianism in the West has involved reinventing familiar entrees to make them vegetarian. A lot of those efforts really have been disappointing.
I'd encourage new vegetarians to try embracing vegetarian staples from places like India, where culinary traditions have a lengthy proven history of supporting healthy and satisfying vegetarianism.
But I'd also say, some veggie burgers really are great. They taste good, they're satisfying, and nobody is deceived when they read "veggie burger" on the menu. This regulation is nonsense. It's just telling vegetarians that their linguistic tradition around their diets -- part of their cultural heritage -- is now banned in the EU.
That’s interesting. Which ones have you tried? I go to a vegan BBQ regularly but have found the burger options lackluster and visually unsettling vs just getting grilled veggies.
I’d try more if you have recommendations. I think I hit all the major players though.
Edit: I noticed you were downvoted and just want to advocate for you. I don’t know why people have such reactions to reasonable discussions :/ If you’re reading this I want you to know I appreciate your comment and I hope you aren’t discouraged from sharing in the future.
Two different things. If you don’t want to eat animal products for ethical reasons but you want something high protein and/or similar in taste/texture to a beef burger, eating a vegetable stir fry isn’t going to cut it. That’s what these products are for.
People also want ultra processed food. I wouldn’t advocate a ban for any of these things—I eat them too—but it seems reasonable to want less focus on them and hope that companies could innovate or market other options.
> a regulation designed to give farmers a stronger negotiating position
Honestly, this feels like a smoke and mirrors done ahead of Mercosur agreement enrollment which may put European farmers especially the smaller ones on lost position facing competition from South America.
Personally, as someone who is primarily vegetarian, I agree with this prohibition.
I've found it very annoying for years when a veggie food shop calls it's products "veggie chicken nuggets" and the like.
Not only is it annoying that they use meat product names to market veggie products, but more importantly it also obscures the actual ingredients of the product.
I am always reminded of the Yes minister "The Emulsified High-Fat Offal Tube" joke which is close to 40 years old now (https://youtu.be/sPwQ0PmK9lw?si=aOvPYUpJcsw8g_kN&t=68). The EU has a very long history of standardize food names, with the natural result that some stuff get forced to change their name.
One of my favorite of such thing is that there seem to be a rule dictating that if you have something called strawberry juice, it has to have strawberries in them. Once I got to the store and the name on one kind of bottle was "Strawberry inspired taste", which made me laugh quite badly.
Problem here is that the excessive focus on secondary issues raises the perception of a problem solving deficit which reduces support/legitimacy for the political system.
It would be nice to focus on solving more existential problems of which there are enough.
I saw "vegetarian rice" made out of Basmati rice last month - a clear marketing ploy to grab particular customers but my brain got mental fart and I wondered for a few seconds amused "as opposed to what - meat based rice?"
While this seems ridiculous I do wish fast food places in particular would be specific what they're selling - is your veggie burger some vegetables/beans in a crispy coating, or a textured thing trying to emulate meat? I've never eaten meat and don't want the latter.
This sort of thing would be comical if it weren't so blatantly and corruptly protecting meat producers. The reason the term evolved is because it works well in meaning. You don't have to like veggie burgers to see what's going on.
Let the verbal gymnastics commence. Or maybe places should start naming veggie burgers after the EU governance in satire?
The EU is a champion of consumers rights as usually applauded on HN. Seems exactly what they are doing here: to avoid misleading or confusing naming practices.
Hamburger is somewhat traditional food. So it makes sense to be regulated as such - to not be able to name any crap hamburger, but only specific crap hamburger. One that is beef patty inside a bun. Having a animal derived patty by grinding is essential part of some item being called hamburger.
I realize this may be satire (Poe's law and all). But I disagree 'hamburger' should get protected status, in anything except the exact quotation without clear prefix/suffix. "Vegetarian Hamburger" (in near-equal font pt) should be fine, Veggie-burger shouldn't even be up for debate imo.
If fine-print is confusing consumers maybe we should improve our labeling standards rather than protecting a food category not in need of protection.
I think that's reasonable regarding expectations, but the flip side is you can't make a vegan patty and call it 'vegan burger like patty'.
The discussed regulation smells heavily of measures to protect the meat industry rather than the consumer who is absolutely able to discern between the classic and vegetarian alternatives.
Why not? Consumers are more likely to give vegetarian products a chance when they are 'drop in' replacements. A 'vegetarian burger' instead of a 'burger' would sell better than a 'plant based patty'.
Feel free to protect 'Hamburg-style Steak', but protecting 'burger' is stupid. Also very odd coincidence that the rise of vegetarian/vegan alternatives prompts the reaction, when nobody batted an eye at 'fish burger' or 'chicken burger'. I suppose that anything which promotes not murdering innocent animals is bad.
But burger? Sure, burgers are often beef, but there have always been other kinds. "Chicken burger", "crab burger", so why not "veggie burger".
The EU likes making regulations, to the point that they are killing their own industry