“Almond Milk” Outlawed But “Veggie Burger” Still Lawful, Votes European Parliament

On 23rd October, the European Parliament voted on two bills raised in the House. These bills focused on amendments to change the terminology for plant-based foods.

Article 171 proposed to ban the use terms such as: Vegan Cheese, Almond Milk, Yogurt Style & Cheese Alternative in product claims or product description.

Amendment 165 would place a ban on use of terms such as: Burger, Sausage, Steak and Escalope to describe plant-based meat alternatives.

While Amendment 165 failed to pass, sustaining the use of meaty terms by law, Article 171 was passed with a majority, consequently banning dairy-related terms.

In 2017, the European Court of Justice had banned the use of dairy terms like “milk”, “butter”, “cheese” and “yogurt” for all plant-based products except Coconut milk, Almond Milk, Peanut Butter, and Ice Cream. The dairy industry has been experiencing a slowdown in growth since the advent of plant-based alternatives. Billions of dollars being generated from the suffering of animals and human consumers are being ploughed back to lobby such amendments that don’t just promote the torture of millions of animals but also regard consumers as innocent and ill-informed people who can get confused while purchasing milk or meat and mistakenly pick up a cruelty-free option. Even if this make-believe scenario comes to reality, it’s a good mistake which helps save the planet from global warming.

Elena Walden, the policy manager of Good Food Institute, Europe, urged EU countries to "clear up this mess and reject confusing and unnecessary restrictions on plant-based dairy products."

Swedish plant-milk giant OATLY slammed EU for this backward move. This is a counter-productive measure in the midst of a climate crisis.

While the vegan milk industry has been hit hard by this ruling, the labelling Act is part of a bigger EU Farming Policy Package for 2021-2027, and these rules are not final. The policy must be adhered by majority of EU member states for it to be finalized and put into effect.

In subsequent proposals of the Labelling Rules, organisations retailing vegan dairy alternatives could be restrained from using traditional dairy packaging such as “butter blocks” and “milk cartons” in near future.