The European Parliament came together Friday to vote on a variety of issues, including whether a veggie burger is a burger, NPR reports.
Farmer lobbyists argued no. Environmentalists said yes.
The Parliament said yes, too, in a decisive vote against a measure that would ban plant-based meat alternatives from being referred to by the names of their meat counterparts. This means terms like steak, sausage and burger.
“Reason prevailed, and climate sinners lost,” Nikolaj Villumsen, a member of the European Parliament tweeted following the vote. “It’s worth celebrating with a veggie burger.”
It’s “common sense,” according to Camille Perrin, the senior food policy officer at the European Consumer Organization.
“Consumers are in no way confused by a soy steak or chickpea-based sausage, so long as it is clearly labelled as vegetarian or vegan,” she said in a statement.
Terms like “burger” and “steak” for plant-based foods help consumers understand how to integrate them into their meals, Perrin said.
Before the vote, Europe’s largest farmer association Copa-Cogeca argued these types of names hurt farmers and promote “misleading and unfair marketing.”
More HERE.