17 October, 2025

“Would you like sauce with your vegetable slab?” Hardly appetising. But that’s the kind of language we might be left with after the EU Parliament’s recent vote to ban words like burger, sausage, and steak from plant-based packaging.  

The ban, first proposed and rejected back in 2020, is meant to protect farmers and prevent consumer confusion. But really, how many people have mistaken a veggie sausage for a pork one? 

The irony is hard to miss. Just as the latest EAT-Lancet Commission warns our food systems are breaching planetary boundaries and recommends limiting red-meat consumption to 15 grams per day (roughly one steak a fortnight), policy makers are voting to make it harder to market the very alternatives that could help us get there. 

Meanwhile, social trends are already pulling away from environmental and health advice. As we explored in a Friday 5 story earlier this year, online content glorifying masculinity and misinformation is fuelling an increase in meat consumption among young men. Legislation like these is likely to push culture even further away from planetary needs. 

Farmers’ concerns about protecting their industry are understandable, but destabilised global supply chains due to climate change are likely to pose a much greater threat than the label on a Quorn nugget.  

If we’re serious about fixing our food systems, we need policies that support innovation and make it easier for people to make better choices around what they eat, not protectionism dressed up as consumer care. 

By Nia Vines