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The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on Friday (4) that plant-based foods such as burgers and sausages can continue to be labeled with names that mimic their meat-based counterparts, in a bitter dispute that has lasted more than three years. The case was brought to court by the French Vegetarian Association (AVF) and the European Vegetarian Union after a 2022 French national law banned the use of meat-related terms such as “burger,” “wings” or “steak” to market plant-based products. Lawmakers argued that terms such as “plant-based burger” could mislead consumers into believing that plant-based products have the same nutritional value as meat or that they contain meat. According to the CJEU, what would make the French law illegal under EU regulations is the fact that not all “meat-friendly” terms are defined as legal names; many are instead considered descriptive.

EU court rules plant-based foods can continue to be marketed using terms traditionally associated with meat

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Friday that France’s ban on meat alternatives having ‘meaty’ names cannot go ahead. The reasons for this lie in the lack of legal definitions for many of the descriptors for meat products, such as ‘steak’. The case against the ban, originally brought forward by organisations including the European Vegetarian Union and Association Protéines France, along with US company Beyond Meat, will now be returned to France’s Council of State (Conseil d’État) for a final decision. In February this year​, France announced that it was banning ‘meaty’ names for its plant-based products. Plant-based bacon could no longer be called ‘bacon,’ plant-based steak was not allowed to be labelled ‘steak’, and plant-based sausage would have to find a different name to ‘sausage’. The ban also extended to other meat alternatives, such as those made from mycoprotein. The ban came after claims that such names could cause consumer confusion, as well as opposition from