Meat Industry Asks EU to Ban “Meat” Label on Veg Food

European meat industry group the Liaison Centre for the Meat Processing Industry in the EU (CLITRAVI) has petitioned the European Union to ban the use of meat terminology on vegetarian and vegan product labels. According to the Irish branch of media outlet The Independent, CLITRAVI is pushing for new guidelines that would prohibit the use of terms such as “meat replacer,” “vegetarian meat,” “vegetarian chicken,” and “vegetarian bacon,” in addition to terms that use a derivative of animal names—such as “chiken,” “porc,” or “beaf”—as they state products such as these are misleading to consumers. Stateside, a group of congressmen similarly petitioned the USDA to pass the Dairy Pride Act that disallow the use of the term “milk” on dairy-free products, also claiming it was misleading to consumers. These proposals show that the animal agriculture industry is feeling the stiff competition of the global growth of meat and dairy alternatives.