Do you buy “steak” as in a generic description for something from any animal, or do you buy bison, camel, goat or horse steak? I have only seen plant based steaks or schnitzel where it has it in the name. “Plant based product” or “product based on soy/pea”
To be fair I hardly ever buy packaged meat so I’m not sure how their labels would look. Though I would expect the plant industries would try and pass their plant based product as the real thing, to trick omnivorous people on buying it instead, so they would write “plant based” or whatever as small as possible if at all (depending on food regulations in the country they are selling it in, of course).
I guess such an assumption would base itself in vegetarian people being more careful with what they buy, compared to normal people, otherwise they’d be tricking them too.
No, I am against the prohibition of common terms, I advocate for a stricter declaration of ingredients. “Milk” alone could be milk from any mammal, cow, goat, human. Steak could be a cut from any animal, that is why a the animal it is from is declared. Oat milk is called milk since centuries but now the industry fears competition and is publishing propaganda and pays lobbyism for restrictive laws.
Right, but ‘steak’ does mean a little more than that. It also would indicate a particular kind of cut of meat, which would generally indicate minimal connective tissue, tenderness, location, etc. Now, you could say “well, all that is irrelevant to this discussion”, but to an extent is really is relevant. We are talking about how word meanings are being changed and how that influences consumer choice. Imagine if we started to see companies using the word 'vegetarian ’ in a way that simply meant ‘containing vegetables’, regardless of meat content. Already terms like ‘organic’ are nearly meaningless in some markets. This sort of thing happens.
Imagine a company creating a half-meat and half-plant based burger and calling the product ‘Vegan Beef’. Who could be confused, some might argue here, about this product? - it has ‘beef’ right in the name.
Strict guidelines can also protect consumers.
To return to the original point, the term ‘steak’ in a food context has already become nearly meaningless (or at least has so many conflicting meanings that it has lost most of its usefulness). ‘Milk’ is heading that way. ‘Organic’ is without much meaning in the US. Would you like ‘meat-free’ labels allowed on foods that had absolutely no muscle-tissue content, but did contain animal organ, bone, and fat content?
Right, but ‘steak’ does mean a little more than that. It also would indicate a particular kind of cut of meat, which would generally indicate minimal connective tissue, tenderness, location, etc.
So as long as it has “steak” written on it you just care that is any animal with those properties?
Would you like ‘meat-free’ labels allowed on foods that had absolutely no muscle-tissue content, but did contain animal organ, bone, and fat content?
I want a strong indicator that a product contains any animal products. There are already many labels for plant based products but none are required by any law.
Do you buy “steak” as in a generic description for something from any animal, or do you buy bison, camel, goat or horse steak? I have only seen plant based steaks or schnitzel where it has it in the name. “Plant based product” or “product based on soy/pea”
To be fair I hardly ever buy packaged meat so I’m not sure how their labels would look. Though I would expect the plant industries would try and pass their plant based product as the real thing, to trick omnivorous people on buying it instead, so they would write “plant based” or whatever as small as possible if at all (depending on food regulations in the country they are selling it in, of course).
I guess such an assumption would base itself in vegetarian people being more careful with what they buy, compared to normal people, otherwise they’d be tricking them too.
I am in strong favor a big prominent “contains animal products” label. It would make live so much easier.
It would make life easier in the same way if the words used to describe meat weren’t then also used to describe plants pretending to be meat
…you’re essentially supporting the intent behind this legislation
No, I am against the prohibition of common terms, I advocate for a stricter declaration of ingredients. “Milk” alone could be milk from any mammal, cow, goat, human. Steak could be a cut from any animal, that is why a the animal it is from is declared. Oat milk is called milk since centuries but now the industry fears competition and is publishing propaganda and pays lobbyism for restrictive laws.
Right, but ‘steak’ does mean a little more than that. It also would indicate a particular kind of cut of meat, which would generally indicate minimal connective tissue, tenderness, location, etc. Now, you could say “well, all that is irrelevant to this discussion”, but to an extent is really is relevant. We are talking about how word meanings are being changed and how that influences consumer choice. Imagine if we started to see companies using the word 'vegetarian ’ in a way that simply meant ‘containing vegetables’, regardless of meat content. Already terms like ‘organic’ are nearly meaningless in some markets. This sort of thing happens.
Imagine a company creating a half-meat and half-plant based burger and calling the product ‘Vegan Beef’. Who could be confused, some might argue here, about this product? - it has ‘beef’ right in the name.
Strict guidelines can also protect consumers.
To return to the original point, the term ‘steak’ in a food context has already become nearly meaningless (or at least has so many conflicting meanings that it has lost most of its usefulness). ‘Milk’ is heading that way. ‘Organic’ is without much meaning in the US. Would you like ‘meat-free’ labels allowed on foods that had absolutely no muscle-tissue content, but did contain animal organ, bone, and fat content?
So as long as it has “steak” written on it you just care that is any animal with those properties?
I want a strong indicator that a product contains any animal products. There are already many labels for plant based products but none are required by any law.