The French government issued a decree Tuesday banning the term “steak” on the label of vegetarian products, saying it was reserved for meat alone.

  • SkippingRelax@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    For starters the word vegan is relatively new and not widely adopted by the general population. Older generations are likely not familiar with it and once again we are trying to put on the customer the onus of disambiguation. On the other hand they are familiar with the word steak, and associate that with an animal cut.

    While your suggestion is intriguing, fake meat producers could just come up with a name for their products that doesn’t confuse people so you don’t need to put ‘vegan’ in front of it. Which is what France is doing and other countries will follow soon.

    • gapbetweenus@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      For starters the word vegan is relatively new and not widely adopted by the general population.

      That would be a somehow valid argument if true. But the more the word is used the faster people will understand what it means, so this problems solves by itself.

      disambiguation.

      Again, nothing ambiguous about vegan steak. It’s self explanatory concept, something that supposed to taste like stake but is vegan. The best way to convey this information is to call it a vegan stake. The only way to be confused about it, if you don’t know the word vegan (this will become better the more it’s used) or if you don’t read the labels, but than labeling differently wont help either.

      fake meat producers could just come up with a name for their products that doesn’t confuse people so you don’t need to put ‘vegan’ in front of it.

      Fake meat products, are targeted at people who want something that taste like meat. Calling something vegan meat - is the best way to communicate that concept. And again it’s not that meat-cheese (Fleischkäse) has been around for long time and we are all still fine, nobody is up in arms against it - the same goes for coconut milk.

      • SkippingRelax@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        I am not familiar with meat cheese, though the idea made me barf a bit.

        You have a point with coconut milk bit it’s such a niche product. I’m not living in the eu at them moment but would have no idea where to find it in my local supermarket.

        Alternative meats are obviously confusing people if a country feel the need to legislate, and others are discussing the same

        • gapbetweenus@feddit.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          9 months ago

          I am not familiar with meat cheese, though the idea made me barf a bit.

          I think only germans truly enjoy this culinary masterpiece https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leberkäse - the name seems to not be even translatable into other languages.

          You have a point with coconut milk bit it’s such a niche product. I’m not living in the eu at them moment but would have no idea where to find it in my local supermarket.

          In Germany you find it in basically any supermarket. Staple of my coocking for sure.

          Alternative meats are obviously confusing people if a country feel the need to legislate, and others are discussing the same

          That is at best a dubious argument. There are unfortunately a lot of reasons for regulations outside pure need, this seems like a rather transparent move to score some points with more conservative voters while at the same time protect own meat industry. But sure if you have any research to back it up - I will gladly reconsider my opinion.