ICMSA welcome pressure from EU Parliament on use of ‘camouflage’ traditional food terms for vegetarian and vegan products

Welcoming reports that the EU Commission is under pressure to ban the use of dairy or meat terminology to promote or advertise vegetarian or synthetic foods, the President of ICMSA, Denis Drennan, said that the employment of terms like ‘sausage, ‘burger’ and ‘schnitzel’ in vegetarian or vegan foods was deliberate and cynical and must constitute a breach of any trade descriptions act as commonly understood. Mr. Drennan said that the ‘hijacking’ of traditional meat and dairy terms actually constituted an admission by the corporations involved that they were unable to convince consumers other than by such ‘camouflage’.

“Obviously, people are free to eat whatever they want but it is a matter of considerable irritation to farmers to see the very people and corporations who want to replace our naturally produced meat and dairy with their own non-meat and non-dairy products very deliberately using the terms that they know are generally understood to refer to traditional dairy and meat products.   They want to use our terminology and the acceptance borne of centuries that those terms have amongst the general public to effectively ‘smuggle’ their own products past a sceptical public. That’s why they use terms like ‘sausage’ and ‘burger’ and ‘milk’ because they know that those terms already have a degree of acceptance and understanding that was earned – and hard earned – by the farmers who produced the dairy, beef and pork that went into those foods. And rather than come up with their own terms and descriptions, they simply appropriate the names of the very foods they’re trying to replace and supplant.  It’s unbelievably cynical and actually an admission on the part of these corporations that they know that they’re unable to convince consumers by their own efforts or merits”, said Mr. Drennan.

The ICMSA President said that the impetus for the banning of these meat-related terms was coming principally from the EU Parliament and the Commission must accept that it was no longer tenable to allow non-dairy and non-meat products to advertise and promote themselves using the very terms and language associated with the traditional foods these vegetarian and vegan products were attempting to supplant.

“It’s self-evidently wrong that products that contained not a trace of meat were being sold as ‘sausage’ or ‘burger’ and being marketed in this disingenuous way. These corporations – and it’s generally corporations – are quite deliberately playing on people’s desire for healthy, traditional, meat-based foodstuffs while actually substituting real meal ingredients with cheaper and more processed vegetable and plant-derived elements. The fact that they’re being allowed to ‘camouflage’ and take advantage of people’s understanding is wrong and will have to be addressed”, concluded Mr. Drennan.

Ends   25 June 2025

Denis Drennan, 086-8389401

President, ICMSA

Or

Cathal MacCarthy, 087-6168758

ICMSA Press Office