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EU lawmakers push to ban term 'veggie-burger'
- theandrewbailey 1y agoDouble-plus good. /s
- ReptileMan 1y agoFood safety and food traditions protections is one of the few areas in which EU are actually good.
- r9295 1y agoUnsure what either of those have to do with this law
- ReptileMan 1y agoHamburger is somewhat traditional food. So it makes sense to be regulated as such - to not be able to name any crap hamburger, but only specific crap hamburger. One that is beef patty inside a bun. Having a animal derived patty by grinding is essential part of some item being called hamburger.
- f_devd 1y agoI realize this may be satire (Poe's law and all). But I disagree 'hamburger' should get protected status, in anything except the exact quotation without clear prefix/suffix. "Vegetarian Hamburger" (in near-equal font pt) should be fine, Veggie-burger shouldn't even be up for debate imo. If fine-print is confusing consumers maybe we should improve our labeling standards rather than protecting a food category not in need of protection.
- bzzzt 1y agoI think that's reasonable regarding expectations, but the flip side is you can't make a vegan patty and call it 'vegan burger like patty'. The discussed regulation smells heavily of measures to protect the meat industry rather than the consumer who is absolutely able to discern between the classic and vegetarian alternatives.
- ReptileMan 1y agoHow will it protect farmers? This won't change consumer habits one bit.
- FranzFerdiNaN 1y agoWhen i buy a hamburger in the supermarket i dont get a bun. So clearly the thing i buy shouldnt be called a hamburger.
- thenthenthen 1y agoAlso, its made from beef, why is it called HAMburger?! /s
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- saubeidl 1y agoBut is it truly a hamburger if it's not from Hamburg?
- tmtvl 1y agoFeel free to protect 'Hamburg-style Steak', but protecting 'burger' is stupid. Also very odd coincidence that the rise of vegetarian/vegan alternatives prompts the reaction, when nobody batted an eye at 'fish burger' or 'chicken burger'. I suppose that anything which promotes not murdering innocent animals is bad.
- FranzFerdiNaN 1y agoThis is a ridiculous move. Its just the right-wing going Trump-like anti-woke owning the liberals.
- bradley13 1y agoSome food labelling is misleading. One example I have seen ist (small) "veggie" (big) "CRISPY CHICKEN". But burger? Sure, burgers are often beef, but there have always been other kinds. "Chicken burger", "crab burger", so why not "veggie burger". The EU likes making regulations, to the point that they are killing their own industry
- t0rt01se 1y agoOoc what did you mean by 'their own' industry? The industry of making regulations or the food industry?
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y agoI read it as general industry within the EU.
- GoToRO 1y agoThe problem is that on the packaging Burger will be written with huge letters and then vegan is metioned somewhere in a corner. I bought cheese that was not cheese :)) Imagine my disappointment.
- notpushkin 1y agoSo maybe we should tackle the root cause somehow instead?
- Jensson 1y agoThat is what they are doing here. Its less work for the few people who wanna call it veggie burger to change than for everyone else to change.
- notpushkin 1y ago> [x] will be written with huge letters and then [y] is metioned somewhere in a corner I don’t understand how banning a specific term will address this general case.
- jjgreen 1y agoThey'll be coming for the sausage next https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=yes+minister+euro+sausage&ia=videos&iax=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DOzeDZtx3wUw https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=yes+minister+euro+sausage&ia=...
- tyleo 1y agoVegetables are delicious. I wish vegan options would lean into this instead of trying to be fake meat. IMO grilled mushrooms are tastier than grilled goop pressed into burger form.
- FranzFerdiNaN 1y agoSo its the right move because you dont like the taste of something?
- tyleo 1y agoIt’s more about it being fake when they are delicious by themselves. Vegetables don’t need improvement, they are already respectable. I think the idea just bothers me, “vegetables aren’t good enough, what you really want is fake meat.”
- KempyKolibri 1y agoTwo different things. If you don’t want to eat animal products for ethical reasons but you want something high protein and/or similar in taste/texture to a beef burger, eating a vegetable stir fry isn’t going to cut it. That’s what these products are for.
- odyssey7 1y agoSome of modern vegetarianism in the West has involved reinventing familiar entrees to make them vegetarian. A lot of those efforts really have been disappointing. I'd encourage new vegetarians to try embracing vegetarian staples from places like India, where culinary traditions have a lengthy proven history of supporting healthy and satisfying vegetarianism. But I'd also say, some veggie burgers really are great. They taste good, they're satisfying, and nobody is deceived when they read "veggie burger" on the menu. This regulation is nonsense. It's just telling vegetarians that their linguistic tradition around their diets -- part of their cultural heritage -- is now banned in the EU.
- tyleo 1y ago
- odyssey7 1y agoThis move will expand the public's belief that regulation means "a ridiculous incursion of rights," leading to greater belief that society is better off without regulation.
- poszlem 1y agoSo a net positive.
- rokkamokka 1y agoNo regulations is a fast-track to the megacorp dystopia, sadly... No regulations means no incentive to care about the actual living people
- saubeidl 1y agoI'd call it a net negative. A lot of regulations are straight up good - clean drinking water, food safety, no sketchy chemicals in clothes, electric appliances that don't catch on fire, the GDPR, consumer protections etc etc are all unequivocally good things. Things like this bring the very useful tool of regulations into disrepute.
- potato3732842 1y agoAny legislative body that sees fit to weigh in on such minutia ought not to be legislating. "Veggie burger" as a term has been in common usage by the public long before any of the other words that convey the same thing.
- mrtksn 1y agoIt depends, its a war between the right to know what you are eating without studying it thoroughly first and the right to claim things as something that they are not. In Europe people tend to be the first kind and see the government as tool for protecting them from the second kind. The revolution is unlikely.
- bluecalm 1y agoDo you think "veggie burger" suggests it is something that it is not?
- pndy 1y ago> a regulation designed to give farmers a stronger negotiating position Honestly, this feels like a smoke and mirrors done ahead of Mercosur agreement enrollment which may put European farmers especially the smaller ones on lost position facing competition from South America.
- Ekaros 1y agoWell better they spend time on this sort of stuff than say chat control. (Not that I am not supporter as meat eater...)
- tcfhgj 1y agoI found that mostly people who are opposed to the existence of these products per se are proponents of this ban.
- nicole_express 1y agoWe're going to see more ridiculous overreach like this as alternatives to meat consumption get more popular. (I say ridiculous because no one is getting confused by "veggie-burger")
- derbOac 1y agoThis sort of thing would be comical if it weren't so blatantly and corruptly protecting meat producers. The reason the term evolved is because it works well in meaning. You don't have to like veggie burgers to see what's going on. Let the verbal gymnastics commence. Or maybe places should start naming veggie burgers after the EU governance in satire?
- intended 1y agoAs an inveterate “get off of my lawn” crabby person, I can get behind this. I tilt against the windmills of the “vegetarian omelette”.
- saubeidl 1y agoThis is classic right wing identity politics. They are so obsessed with silly labels - is there nothing more important to deal with?
- KempyKolibri 1y ago> The EU has already defined dairy items milk, butter, cream, yoghurt and cheese as "products secreted by mammary glands" I think they should just label things more explicitly like this - accelerate veganism 100x when people in the supermarkets have to choose between “pressed soybeans” and “mammary gland secretions”.
- someNameIG 1y agoSo are they going to change the name of peanut butter? Coconut milk? Neither are secretions of mammary glands
- KempyKolibri 1y agoMonkey nut paste and big hairy ball juice, obviously.
- crtasm 1y agoWhile this seems ridiculous I do wish fast food places in particular would be specific what they're selling - is your veggie burger some vegetables/beans in a crispy coating, or a textured thing trying to emulate meat? I've never eaten meat and don't want the latter.
- Simulacra 1y agoThis reminds me of the ongoing problem with products being labeled "natural."
- okl 1y agoProblem here is that the excessive focus on secondary issues raises the perception of a problem solving deficit which reduces support/legitimacy for the political system. It would be nice to focus on solving more existential problems of which there are enough.
- tmtvl 1y ago> The EU has already defined dairy items milk, butter, cream, yoghurt and cheese as "products secreted by mammary glands", meaning that what might otherwise be called oat milk is instead generally referred to as oat drink. Meanwhile, back in 1755: > MILK. n.s. [meelc, Saxon; melck, Dutch.] > 2. Emulsion made by contusion of seeds. > Pistachoes, so they be good and not musty, joined with almonds in almond milk, or made into a milk of themselves, like unto almond milk, are an excellent nourisher.
- mytailorisrich 1y agoThe EU is a champion of consumers rights as usually applauded on HN. Seems exactly what they are doing here: to avoid misleading or confusing naming practices.
- 28304283409234 1y ago"Because this is the most urgent matter at hand, dad?" -My 14 year old daughter.
- stanski 1y agoThis is ridiculous. A burger is a construct. Sure, you can't call a veggie patty a beef patty, but how does the meat industry own the word burger?
- johnea 1y agoPersonally, as someone who is primarily vegetarian, I agree with this prohibition. I've found it very annoying for years when a veggie food shop calls it's products "veggie chicken nuggets" and the like. Not only is it annoying that they use meat product names to market veggie products, but more importantly it also obscures the actual ingredients of the product.
- belorn 1y agoI am always reminded of the Yes minister "The Emulsified High-Fat Offal Tube" joke which is close to 40 years old now (https://youtu.be/sPwQ0PmK9lw?si=aOvPYUpJcsw8g_kN&t=68 https://youtu.be/sPwQ0PmK9lw?si=aOvPYUpJcsw8g_kN&t=68). The EU has a very long history of standardize food names, with the natural result that some stuff get forced to change their name. One of my favorite of such thing is that there seem to be a rule dictating that if you have something called strawberry juice, it has to have strawberries in them. Once I got to the store and the name on one kind of bottle was "Strawberry inspired taste", which made me laugh quite badly.
- mrguyorama 1y agoI love strict product labeling rules and laws. Thanks to those kinds of regulations, people like my mom can buy stuff knowing that it won't hurt them unexpectedly. I'm frustrated with the status quo of being able to say "100% real chicken" in your 50% by weight chicken nuggets. It pisses me off that saying "gluten free" on products that should never contain gluten improves sales, and I find that a poor excuse to allow that. I'm tired of all the puffery that claims in big bold letters "Best product" and then in a tiny print somewhere else "compared to a fake product we only ran in a small community to invent this accolade" Unfortunately, this "article" provides zero actual information. No actual text of what was voted on. No context for when or where "veggie burger" is supposedly banned. So great, can't find out if there might be nuance to this issue, can't find out any arguments, can't even find the actual words which were voted on. Oh, actually looks like this was a vote for an amendment? No actual law has been voted on yet. That has not stopped anyone here from makings broad and sweeping generalizations, as usual.