I am not familiar with meat cheese, though the idea made me barf a bit.
You have a point with coconut milk bit it's such a niche product. I'm not living in the eu at them moment but would have no idea where to find it in my local supermarket.
Alternative meats are obviously confusing people if a country feel the need to legislate, and others are discussing the same
For starters the word vegan is relatively new and not widely adopted by the general population. Older generations are likely not familiar with it and once again we are trying to put on the customer the onus of disambiguation.
On the other hand they are familiar with the word steak, and associate that with an animal cut.
While your suggestion is intriguing, fake meat producers could just come up with a name for their products that doesn't confuse people so you don't need to put 'vegan' in front of it.
Which is what France is doing and other countries will follow soon.
No I'm not going vegan we should both be able to make out food choices and not have to second guess. That's my whole fucking point about not mislabelling food.
I'm telling a vegan that reading ingredients could be even harder if we don't regulate and use the right words. The fact that you had it hard doesn't mean everyone else should.
Maybe instead of screaming you could actually try to explain what is a problem of labeling a vegan product as vegan steak
Confusing and misrepresenting. Steak is meat.
For customer it's rather clear that it's vegan
Except that in some cases it's not.
So what exact problem does arrive from having a vegan steak?
Again confusing and misrepresenting for customers. The reason why France legislated about this BTW, let's not pretend it's hard to grasp
if you planing on producing meat that tastes like banana, I don't see any problem to lable it as meat banana.
No I am talking about a processed vegan food that is called 'vegan something' but that it turns out, has chicken eggs and maybe even meat in the list of ingredients. Just because someone might argue around the meaning of 'vegan' the way we are doing for steak, and legislation in some countriesight not protect the meaning of vegan in food names.
Just to be very clear. Nothing against vegans or vegan food. I am for clarity when it comes to customers, particularly in the food industry.
Ah yes you have proven that I can read therefore it is okay to mislabel products across a whole country and potentially mislead other people. Checkmate.
Or how about we protect customers and try not to mislabel products?
What's with the dog meat? I believe it's illegal everywhere in Europe isn't it? Otherwise, just meat so yeah technically a steak.
Nah just hate the approach. In fact I am all for alternative food, as long as they are labelled properly.
I do come from a place that similarly to France, has a strong culture around food and I hate seeing people fucking around and talking about words as 'metaphores' and how about you read labels carefully.
As I mentioned elsewhere, vegetarians/vegans have more to lose by mislabelling than anyone else (would anyone like a vegan product that actually contains chicken eggs?)
But yeah, I am a meat eater. I had similar arguments in another platoform a long time ago about GMOs. Me being strongly of the opinion that they can live in a supermarket but clearly labelled, downvoted to oblivion too because fuck the customer they should just learn to read or trust the vendor that what's in their food is what they want to eat ( whatever their preference might be)
English not a eu member language uh? How about first you think about which countries on the continent speak what language, then which ones are members, then you go and read the Wikipedia page about it and we pretend this conversation never happened and noone will hold it against you not even the stupid part about packaging means processed and me being the one confused here
Oh good lord, you all have the same edgy argument on this thread. Are you gonna tell me that I need to learn how to read next, or that I am an idiot, and that the problem is just me?
Millions of people buy their meat as I just described. They expect to be able to do so moving forward. If youbare used to grab a head of broccoli and move on why do you need someone to start questioning how you chose it, how do you really knownits not cabbage, and really don't you even read if it's organic or where it comes from?
Yes in many cases the label can be misleading. A whole country just legislated about it.
I'm not french but agree this is the right decision.
I'm all for veganism and vegetarianism. And for plant based products.
I also like to fuckong know what I am buying without having to dissect it.
I do that, I am very serious about my flours and breads. And so should you.
Status quo is not necessarily a bad thing. particularly if we are talking about things like food and places like France. It's called culture, my friend, some people and countries care about it.
You'd argue that in France as a vendor, and you'd go to jail. Other countries will follow soon and I can see France Italy and Spain to push for this as a European law.
Not a problem for you doesn't mean that it's okay for all customer of a country or of the eu, it can be misleading.
And I can tell which animal it was by just looking at it both the look of the meat and the cut. Unless it's not meat and it's designed to look like a (usually beef) steak, in which case I might be induced to think it's a beef steak.
Which is the whole point here, France is regulating so this does not happen.
Mentioned in another thread. I buy meat cuts the same way I buy a head of broccoli, pass by the aisle look at it and grab it. And so does the fucking majority of population that are busy and would like to continue to do so and not need to read the fine printing
I can identify a beef steak from pork, lamb, chicken and horse by the look of the meat and by the cut. I do so routinely and so do everyone that shops for meat.
The same way I can tell a head of broccoli from say cauliflower.
A meat replacement beef stake looks exactly like a beef steak. If it also says steak on the packaging people can just grab it and go. Definition of mislabelling.
Now, I've already covered this in other comments so if you are about to say this is my fucking problem and that I should learn to read. No, this is every customer's problem. People are busy, elderly people might not bring their glasses to the supermarket and more in general the EU is on the side of the customer so no, company that sell something should label it clearly particularly if it could be deceiving.
If you are about to give me the poor meat eaters, treated unwell consider that vegetarians and vegans have more to lose. What if the tables turn and dodgy vendors are allowed to label their product vegan friendly even tho6they might not be.
LOL if you say so then we have settled this whole argument. Go ahead and let the France government know.
From other comments it sounds like you might be vegetarian or vegan. Would you like product to be mislabelled and contain products thatbyoubare not okay to eat, just because someone else thinks it doesn't matter and "vegan product" can be interpreted in many ways and it's stupid anyway?
Sure then lets call the meat substitutes that are the subject of this thread 'ultra processed foods', that are being mislabelled for genuine EU agricultural products by astute scammers
Not just me, also a whole fucking coutry that just legislated about it and more countries will follow.
It's a new thing, it takes time. I and its not just about me not being able to read, it's all the customers that will be mislead and sold processed food instead of, you know, a steak. That some people don't
Sure it is allowed, this is a while new thing, give time to regulators to catch up, as France is doing.
Also, Oxford dictionary has four definitions for steak, none of them is that spew of words that you just made up to fit your narrative:
a thick slice of good quality beef
a thick slice of any type of meat
beef that is not of the best quality, often sold in small pieces and used in pies, stews, etc.
The only funny thing is that you call shitty wine champagne COLLOQUIALLY with your mates and miss the point that this whole thread is about food being sold to customers and actually labelled wrong, something that is taken pretty seriously in the EU, and rightly so.
Want to continue talking about champagne in your after work plans with Debbie from the second floor? Be out guest but you can't sell something that is not champagne as such.
And BTW this is a good thing for all of us consumers of the union. Particularly vegans and vegetarians, the main target audience of these replacement products. You wouldn't want their products accidentally mislabelled and chicken eggs or animal meat ending in products labelled as vegan?
Then buy bacon. Or go online and try to find some info about what could resemble bacon in your country/area. Don't see why all fucking people that have been buying bacon expecting to buy bacon now need to sift through other stuff to find, you know, bacon.
Doesn't really matter the reason why vegans are vegans. You made a choice, deal with it and I am not saying this in a snarky way, we shouldn't change the meaning orlf word and mislabel food because of your choice and your personal tastes that still lean towards bacon - I can't blame you for that BTW
No I love vegetables, it's just that I like to choose and I hate processed foods. Most important I like to know what I am buying and stop customer shaming, I shouldn't need to read the fine print because some scanmers are trying to sell shit for something else.
Good follow-up though with your question about vegetables, I go through the veggie aisle and grab a head of broccoli. Am I allowed to assume it's a fucking broccoli or do I need to read the fine print too? How would vegetarians/vegans (or anyone really) feel if the head of broccoli was plunged in pig fat and sold just as broccoli. And everyone on lemmy was just 'get over it it's still broccoli, it's a word you don't own it' and some other bullshit about shortcomings.
The European union has some pretty strong regulations around food and mislabelling. Sorry doesn't work that way, you can't blame a customer for not reading the fine printing.
I am not familiar with meat cheese, though the idea made me barf a bit.
You have a point with coconut milk bit it's such a niche product. I'm not living in the eu at them moment but would have no idea where to find it in my local supermarket.
Alternative meats are obviously confusing people if a country feel the need to legislate, and others are discussing the same