France has major beef with faux steak—and it’s banning the use of 21 words to describ : Low-Carb War Zone Forum : Active Low-Carber Forums

#1 ^

Sun, Mar-03-24, 12:18

Calianna

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France has major beef with faux steak—and it’s banning the use of 21 words to describ

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France has major beef with faux steak—and it’s banning the use of 21 words to describe plant-based meat that way

Vegetarian steak au poivre? Actually, France would like you to call it ‘plant-based meat alternative au poivre’ instead.

The French government issued a decree on Tuesday banning the use of 21 terms, including “steak” and “fillet,” from being used to describe plant-based products up for sale or distribution. “Burger,” however, is not on the list.

The new rule, created in an effort to prevent confusion over which products are actually plant-based meat alternatives, will go into effect in three months. It will only apply to products made in France. The French ministry of Agriculture and Food did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

An earlier version of this decree was introduced and shot down in court last June because its language was too vague and it did not offer enough time for plant-based brands to make necessary changes.

"It is an issue of transparency and loyalty which meets a legitimate expectation of consumers and producers," French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said in a statement to Reuters.

The decree coincides with the growing hunger for plant-based meat alternatives in Europe. Beyond Meat had soaring fourth-quarter earnings, in part because of its strong international sales, which included a 22% bump in retail sales. A GFI Europe analysis of NielsenIQ retail sales data found a 22% increase in plant-based product sales between 2020 and 2022 across 13 European countries. Plant-based meat saw 2 billion Euros in sales in 2022, accounting for 6% of the pre-packaged meat market.

But while the fake meat industry is thriving in Europe, livestock farmers are suffering. Farmers across the EU are protesting falling prices, and as Europe’s No. 1 beef producer, France is under even more pressure to maintain the health of the industry. The French government’s restrictions on plant-based meats is, in part, a move to assuage that anger and lend a helping hand. The decree follows similar moves by the Italian government, which last year banned the production of lab-grown meat and the use of meat-related words to market plant-based alternatives in order to protect the country’s meat industry.

But in a bid to protect the farmers and manufacturers, these rules will likely confuse consumers, trademark lawyer Brett Lewis told Fortune.

“It's hard to describe what the products are without using the word….because that's the purpose and the function that they serve in people's diets,” he said.

Instead, French plant-based product producers will have to get creative with their language. Lewis, a longtime vegetarian, provided a few suggestions: Instead of sausage, have some “extruded soy fibers in a casing.” Want a steak? What about a “pink-ish looking vegetable protein product”?

European nations have a long history of trying to protect the industries producing premium products. Individual countries as well as the European Union as a whole have gone to great lengths to regulate the branding and product integrity of some of its best-known products to benefit its manufacturers.
The EU’s literal Champagne problems

In many cases—though not in the case of plant-based meat alternatives—the EU’s protections over its agricultural products take the form of quality schemes, such as protected designation of origin, which registers products to the place or tradition with which they were traditionally produced. It’s the indication given to Champagne, the sparkling white wine produced only in the region of northern France for which it is named.

These standards, the European Commission argues, are crucial in negotiating trade and protecting intellectual property, allowing manufacturers to have appropriate compensation for products.

To see the extent to which the EU will go to protect these indications, look no further than the over 2,300 cans of Miller High Life that Belgian Customs crushed in April, simply because the beer bore the slogan “the Champagne of Beers.”

The General Administration of Belgian Customs destroyed the brew shipment, originally on its way to Germany, because products that violate protected-designation-of-origin laws are treated as “counterfeit goods.”

After the ordeal, Charles Goemaere, the managing director of the Comité Champagne, a collective of Champagne industry professionals, expressed his contentment with the decision and wanted to “congratulate the Belgian Customs for their vigilance with regard to the Champagne designation and for their responsiveness,” according to a statement to Food & Wine.

The EU has even tried to pressure U.S. cheesemakers into abiding by food labeling standards, despite having little authority to do so. In 2014, EU spokesperson Roger Waite indicated to the Associated Press that limiting U.S. cheesemakers' use of “Parmesan,” among other region-specific labels, was “an important issue for the EU,” suggesting the green-labeled shakeable cheese dust could be confused for the aged hard cheese produced in Parma. U.S. cheese companies had tasted victory in March, when a federal appeals court ruled they were able to label certain cheese as “gruyere,” even if it wasn’t produced in a certain region of France and Switzerland.

Plant-based meat substitutes won’t face the same challenges with EU quality schemes as these other brands, Lewis said, but they’ll experience a similar pressure: Europe wants to protect its own agriculture products and workers, and will do so by whatever means necessary.

As the buzz around plant-based proteins in Europe continues to grow, so, too, will the debate over what to call these products, Lewis posited.

“It's probably something which is going to become a more hotly contested issue over time as the plant-based food producers gain market share,” he said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fran...ml?guccounter=1

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#2 ^

Sun, Mar-03-24, 12:20

Calianna

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Instead of sausage, have some “extruded soy fibers in a casing.” Want a steak? What about a “pink-ish looking vegetable protein product”?

I practically guffawed at those - those are certainly a lot more accurate descriptions of what you're eating than what we're seeing on most vegan "meat" products in the US.

#3 ^

Sat, Mar-16-24, 00:17

Demi

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Finally, France moves to ban ‘meaty’ names in plant-based

It was France, home of the fabled chefs Antonin Carême and Auguste Escoffier, that gave us the foundation of modern European cooking. The classic ‘fonds de cuisine’, where soups, sauces, and braises are predicated on flavourful stocks, made by lengthy simmering and reduction of bony meat, poultry, or fishy carapace, with aromatic vegetables and herbs.

So it is fitting that this nation, with its profound understanding of the flavour properties of ingredients and a culture that actively defends its food heritage, has called time on the misuse of meaty terms to describe plant-based concoctions.

In three months’ time, France will follow South Africa and Italy in banning the use of ‘meaty’ terminology to describe plant-based imitations of the real thing. Descriptions like meatless ‘jambon’, plant-based ‘biftek’, vegan ‘escalope’ and ‘filet’ will trigger fines of up to €7,500.

Companies selling meat substitutes deploy umami flavourings in a futile attempt to recreate the distinctive tastes animal foods yield, but only the most obsessive vegans are persuaded. You can boil up tofu ‘steaks’ and veggie ‘burgers’ for as long as you like, but you’ll only end up with a foul gloop.

UK regulators’ laissez-faire approach to the labelling of meat alternatives allows some hilariously faux products on our shelves, as convincing as those prankster plastic fried eggs you see in joke shops. Perhaps because these analogues look so blatantly unreal, Trading Standards officers don’t believe anyone is being fooled.

Globally, the financials of the plant-based meat sector look grim. Take one-time market leader Beyond Meat. Last year, every $1 of product it sold cost $1.78 to make. A decade in business and it has never made a profit. Losses of $1bn loom on its balance sheet.

Plant-based meat purveyors still try to stall labelling restrictions because they present them with an insoluble marketing dilemma. How on earth can it describe its products without linguistic sleight of hand?

‘Veggie slices’, ‘vegan strips’, no-meat ‘choppies’, ‘tofu tucker’? Such appellations do not make the gastric juices flow.

Indeed they simply underline just how hard it is to build sales for a composition of ultra-processed ingredients when you can’t allude to the honest, well-understood eating qualities of real meat.

https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/plant-b.../689196.article

#4 ^

Sat, Mar-16-24, 07:22

Calianna

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Companies selling meat substitutes deploy umami flavourings in a futile attempt to recreate the distinctive tastes animal foods yield, but only the most obsessive vegans are persuaded. You can boil up tofu ‘steaks’ and veggie ‘burgers’ for as long as you like, but you’ll only end up with a foul gloop.

Quote:

Plant-based meat purveyors still try to stall labelling restrictions because they present them with an insoluble marketing dilemma. How on earth can it describe its products without linguistic sleight of hand?

‘Veggie slices’, ‘vegan strips’, no-meat ‘choppies’, ‘tofu tucker’? Such appellations do not make the gastric juices flow.

What gloriously descriptive phrases!

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Globally, the financials of the plant-based meat sector look grim. Take one-time market leader Beyond Meat. Last year, every $1 of product it sold cost $1.78 to make. A decade in business and it has never made a profit. Losses of $1bn loom on its balance sheet.

This is a business strategy doomed to failure - After a decade, not only have they yet to even break even on cost vs sales, they are still bleeding (pun not intended... but lets go with it anyway) money at a ridiculous rate. They have to know that this is not in any way a viable business strategy. It's not a business, because no true businessperson would be willing to lose that kind of money after a decade in business, and continue to operate the business, because they're basically donating $100m/year to the cause of veganism.

Since they claim that this is all to protect the animals, the planet, and public health, they would do much better putting that money into getting up on their soap box in the public square (social media these days) and put that amount of money towards preaching veganism to the public, and teaching them how to eat vegan - show them how to prepare vegan foods, show them how to prepare a tasty meal. (and yes, go ahead and try to convince them that they'll get all the nutrients they need, and that the vegan recipes they're giving out are tasty)

#5 ^

Wed, Mar-20-24, 10:04

WereBear

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Since they claim that this is all to protect the animals, the planet, and public health, they would do much better putting that money into getting up on their soap box in the public square (social media these days) and put that amount of money towards preaching veganism to the public, and teaching them how to eat vegan - show them how to prepare vegan foods, show them how to prepare a tasty meal. (and yes, go ahead and try to convince them that they'll get all the nutrients they need, and that the vegan recipes they're giving out are tasty)

They do, they are all over social media doing that. Were I a young person who doesn't pay attention to science it would be easy -- especially for young and idealistic people -- to see veganism as THE answer and essentially join a cult. Most people don't -- they try it, maybe get the "honeymoon" but give up on trying to get it back.

But many are true believers and unshakeable, even as their health deteriorates and their doctors give them B-12 shots. If those don't work, and they sometimes don't, the fervent go mad and/or blind. This is all accepted science, so I don't see why the vegan nonsense got so big. But these are the times we inhabit, which is why don't look at the plant meat losses: we look at the Plant-Based Food Business gains.

Since the PBFB are either all the same company or as-good-as because they work together on mutual goals. And these are all in thrawl to the banks and hedge funds who decides, like in Dune, money must flow. Right now, there's huge profits in fake foods that are plant based that people will eat. (Next move: the soy nuggets route, where we see more batter dipped non meat with a sauce packet. I guess it doesn't go bad and can be moved into some other form, like adulterating further the "meat" in fast food.

Plant meat might be a loss-leader in the sense that no one wants to buy it or eat it. But if I were one of the PBFB, I would work on how its mere stubborn presence in the meat case can inflict upon customers the famous Fear of Red Meat. Half the headlines the past few years. Everyone "knows" it, by which I mean they have been fooled. Well played, PBFB money!

So now we have a sense of guilt and impending doom that sells a lot of deodorant, too. How many of them will compensate... not by turning to the actual pot roast, but to chicken or even pasta dinner. That has a false "healthy" aura in their minds now.

Classic three level pricing: the majority will split it down the middle and you get them.

What if all that money is actually about scaring people away from animal foods, where the profit margin is low. Making people feel guilty about eating anything but plants. Not enough to turn them vegan -- though that's an influence in the "gosh, if I was that morally strong" kind of way. Since we aren't a Disney princess, but we can wear the costume at Halloween, we will compromise.

"I'm trying to get more protein from plants," is another thing I hear. And I get to tell them, "So now you have to eat 30% more?" They don't know.

If they google it, I get them. But who am I? When half the headlines they try not to read tells them plant-based is the way they must go.

So they go halfway.

If that's all they do, that's a lot of money for the people who make money when people eat plants.

#6 ^

Wed, Mar-20-24, 14:05

Calianna

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Originally Posted by WereBear

Oh I agree with what you said about their agenda and how they're going about it. And I know they're everywhere pushing the idea that meat is murder, meat will kill you, you can get all the nutrients you need from plants. (well perhaps you can get all the nutrients you need from plants - IF the plants have enough insects on them... but the plant would need to be positively covered with insects, in which case it's no longer plant based, is it?)

I was just thinking more in terms of the nearly $1 BILLION that the Beyond Meat company alone has already lost, and how they're hemorrhaging even more money at an outrageously ridiculous rate - not just not breaking even on their investment, but it's costing them 1-3/4 times as much money as what they're bringing in. And they've been at this for a decade already.

How many more fake meat companies are also on their way to losing that kind of money? How long can they possibly keep this up?

Do they have literally unlimited funds to continue to push the vegan agenda AND also keep fake meat companies going?

I can't imagine they have that kind of funding, which means they can't keep losing money like that and continue to operate indefinitely. Eventually the debt load will catch up with them, and they will be forced to go out of business.

That's where I was thinking that if they have the funds to keep their failing business going - when clearly the business is not going to ever stop losing money, much less break even - if they channeled those funds into a massive coordinated vegan campaign, they might have better luck with promoting their agenda. As it is now, it's almost as if they're only half-trying, and the fake meats are actually working against their plant based agenda. (Except for whatever guilt they can elicit in meat eaters who will concede to eat a fake meat occasionally just to soothe their guilt over eating meat most of the time - but not often enough for the fake meat companies to stay afloat.)

(not that I want them to do better - I won't be the least bit upset when the fake meat companies go bankrupt and need to close down)