EU negotiators have failed to come to an agreement on whether to ban the use of 'meat' descriptors in the marketing of plant-based alternatives.

According to European news site Euractiv, a trilogue meeting yesterday (10 December) was supposed to be the final round of negotiations between the European Parliament and Council to reach an agreement on a review of the common market organisation, which includes a clause on the branding of plant-based foods.

In a statement yesterday (10 December), Jacob Jensen, Denmark's Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fishery, said the European Council "did not succeed in reaching an agreement today with the European Parliament on the adjustment of the common organisation of agricultural markets."

He added: "It was important for us to minimise unnecessary and burdensome rules and, going forward, we need to take the recommendations of the Draghi report more seriously. This applies both to the rules on written contracts and the use of meat designations.”

The Draghi report, released last year, is a list of recommendations laid out by former European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi, to help the EU "adapt to a rapidly changing world and secure sustainable growth for the decades ahead".

Jasmijn de Boo, global CEO of non-profit group ProVeg International said the stalling of talks “allows the EU institutions time to reflect on the value of restricting plant-based food labeling. No-one is confused by terms like 'vegetarian sausage', as numerous surveys attest. So, in fact, there is no need to restrict such labeling.

“Instead, we must enter the New Year with determination to actively encourage the production and consumption of plant-based foods as a way to help boost the EU economy, improve the healthiness of European consumers’ diets, open up opportunities for Europe’s farmers and bring down the bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions.”

In October, the European Parliament approved a negotiating position to restrict the use of terms such as “steak” and “sausage” to products containing meat.

The mandate included a new definition of meat as “edible parts of animals” and stated names including steak, escalope, sausage and burger should be reserved exclusively for meat products and exclude cell-cultured items.

Hamburger, egg yolk and egg white were also in the list.

The European Parliament's backing followed a European Commission proposal, made earlier this year, to ban a list of 29 'meat' terms for use in marketing plant-based alternatives.

A similar ban was rejected by MEPs five years ago. In October 2024, meanwhile, the European Court of Justice also ruled EU member states could not ban 'meaty' terms, after France re-attempted to ban domestic producers from using meat-related descriptors for plant-based products. 

Plant-based products can use these terms in the EU if the product shows it is an alternative and contains no meat.