France Bans Terms ‘Steak’, ‘Escalope’ and ‘Ham’ for Plant-Based Products - CJEU Against
An EU member state cannot ban producers of plant-based meat alternatives from using terms such as ‘steak’, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on Friday, contradicting a decree passed by France.
In its ruling, the Court said that if a state has not adopted a specific legal name for a food product, it cannot ban the use of terms intended to denote the product.
According to the Court of Justice of the European Union, ‘a Member State may not hinder producers of food products based on plant proteins’ by a general and abstract prohibition to use ‘common names or (descriptive) names’.
The new decree, published on Tuesday by the French government, defines a list of names reserved for animal products and therefore prohibited for plant-based products, including steak, escalope, ham, fillet, entrecote...
This text was adopted at the request of the livestock sector, which believes that terms such as ‘plant-based ham’, ‘vegan sausage’ or ‘vegetarian bacon’ can cause confusion among consumers.
The decree provides for maximum fines of €1,500 for individuals and €7,500 for companies, as well as a transitional period of one year for the sale of existing stock.