Dispute over vegan and vegetarian products: Merz and Rainer for the name of the name

At the EU level, a ban on names such as “Burger”, “Wurst” or “Schnitzel” for vegetarian products, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and Agriculture Minister Alois Rainer (CSU) have signaled approval. “A sausage is a sausage. Sausage is not vegan,” said Merz on Sunday evening in the ARD show “Caren Miosga”. However, consumer advocates criticized the project sharply.

In the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, an application will be coordinated this week that provides that burgers, schnitzel and sausages are only allowed to be called when meat is contained. The trained butcher Rainer welcomed this: “For me personally, a schnitzel is made of turkey, calf or pig,” he told the “picture”.

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture referred to the coalition agreement, in which it is stated that consumers should decide independently how they feed. This requires “transparency and information about the food available in stores”. The Ministry therefore welcomes “the clear distinction and recognizability of traditional animal food and herbal meat substitute products”.

The EU consumer organization Foodwatch, on the other hand, sees on the wrong track: there is no evidence that consumers are confused by visibly as “vegan” or “vegetarian” products, explained Foodwatch chief Chris Methmann. “Under the pretext of consumer protection, the EU wants to ban familiar terms such as tofu sausages or seed seams – this is not consumer protection, which is lobbying in the service of the meat industry.”

“The majority of consumers are not confused about these terms,” ​​said the European Consumer Association Beuc. The EU project “makes little sense from a consumer perspective”.

The coordination in the EU Parliament is scheduled for Wednesday. However, the decision would not be final, but the parliament would then have to negotiate with the 27 EU countries about the proposed change in law.