Europe seeks to ban advertising of vegetarian protein as meat

BRUSSELS (AP) — Lawmakers in the European Parliament on Wednesday voted to ban the labelling of vegetarian protein with terms such as “steak” or “meat.”

The lawmakers voted 532 to 78 to define meat as “edible parts of animals” and to curtail the use of words like steak, escalope, sausage or burger for animal and not plant-based products. The proposal will go to a parliamentary committee to be clarified, before going back to the EU executive arm and then to the bloc’s 27 member states for further negotiations.

Celine Imart, a conservative German lawmaker and former farmer, said using meat-related terms for vegetarian products was misleading.

“Now, we’re not talking about banning vegetable or plant-based alternatives, of course not. But I think that terms should speak for themselves and s