A veggie schnitzel ban would be a bad joke

When was the last time you bought a “veggie schnitzel” and then wondered that there is no meat in it? Or in the supermarket for the “soy sausage” granted in the firm belief that you would get something that once belonged to an animal? Probably not for a long time, after all, everything has been there for a few years. You got used to it.

The European People’s Party (EPP) still sees a problem here that now needs a strict solution. So that convinced meat eaters do not accidentally reach for a vegetable alternative, terms such as “sausage”, “Schnitzel”, “Steak” or “Burger” should be reserved only for products that contain meat “. So it is in a proposal of the EVP, which the EU Parliament coordinates this week.

Tatütata, the language police are here! And of all people, the conservatives, who like to blame the left, they called for speech bans and censorship. Under the guise of consumer protection, you operate the lobby for the good old meat industry – and a little cultural struggle.

The EPP is the largest faction in the EU Parliament, and the German representatives of CDU/CSU also belong to it. The ban was brought in by a French EPP member with close connections to agriculture. The agricultural committee has already received her anti-veggie advance. If the EU Parliament waves it through it, another hurdle would be overturned. Ultimately, the EU countries would have to agree.

Five years ago, a similar EU initiative had just failed. This time at least the Chancellor seems ready to play the role of the sausage sheriff for Germany. “A sausage is a sausage. Sausage is not vegan,” said Friedrich Merz on Sunday at “Caren Miosga” in the ARD. CSU Agriculture Minister Alois Rainer, a trained butcher, sees it similarly. And sausage influencer Markus Söder, who likes to denounce the modern “tofu terror” in beer tents, probably does not have to be asked.

In fact, the planned veggie name ban is nothing more than a farce. It is due to consumer protection – even consumer advocates consider it nonsense. The European consumer association said that the majority of consumers were not confused by the terms used. And the local Consumer Center Federal Association also thinks that such a ban will not help anyone. Anyone who buys a “vegan seitan schnitzel” knows very well what awaits them in terms of taste and which replacement ingredient is included.

Against the ban on naming, not only manufacturers of plant alternatives such as Rügenwalder Mühle, which would be massively affect. Also the discounters Lidl and Aldi-rather unimaginative-tried to move the German EU parliamentarians recently with a common letter. Vegan Schnitzel has long since been known to customers if the products in the future have to be called “vegan breaded protein disc” or similarly creatively, this will cause confusion.

Of course, it is true that with food there are clear rules of how something can be mentioned and how not so that consumers are not misled. But elsewhere, consumers have been trusted for a long time that they do not take every term literally. Word has got around that there is no salmon in the “salmon ham” from the sausage shelf. And in the Bavarian liver cheese – what linguistic misleading – neither liver nor cheese is included. Conversely, there is the “cheese science”, which contains cheese but no meat. In German, Schnitzel means nothing more than “cut off” in the word sense anyway, which is why people speak of apple carving without having any problems with the European meat lobby.

In any case, it is quite ironic that the sausage and meat lobby of all people demands more transparency for consumers. So the industry that generally dares everything to make customers forget that a large part of their products come from factory farming that is suitable for the worst shock pictures. On the packaging, one prefers to print heal farm world and a few confusing labels that suggest something with animal welfare.

In any case, the meat and sausage industry is very familiar with systematic misleading. Until recently In Germany, for example, it was still common to sell “poultry sausage”, which actually consisted of pork largely. Today this has to be marked at least. But what is in an animal sausage, you might not want to know exactly anyway.