The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that plant-based products cannot be banned from being called terms traditionally associated with meat, such as burgers or hotdogs.

It comes after Protéines France, the European Vegetarian Union, the Vegetarian Association of France and the company Beyond Meat Inc contested a decree adopted by the French government to protect transparency of food information in trade.

The decree prohibits the use of names such as ‘steak’ or ‘sausage’ for the purpose of designating processed products containing vegetables, even with the inclusion of additional indications such as ‘vegetable’ or ‘soya’.

The four entities argue that the decree infringes on EU regulations and have asked the French Council of State to annul the contested decree.

Court decision

The Court of Justice of the European Union said that consumers are already adequately protected by EU regulations.

A member state can adopt a legal name for a given food, which associates a specific expression with a given food, the court said.

Where it has not adopted any legal name, a member state cannot prevent producers of vegetable-based foods from naming its products through the use of customary or descriptive names.

However, the court did rule that a state could prosecute a food business operator if the specific arrangements for the sale or promotion of a food misled the consumer.

The court added that a state cannot create a national measure, for levels of vegetable protein in a product, which determines if a food can use a name derived from the butchery and charcuterie sectors for the purpose of describing, marketing or promoting.