Some US states are introducing legislation to block the use of meat names and associated products on plant based or laboratory grown alternatives…
Such changes have been claim as censorship and against freedom of speech provision in the US Constitution, and are likely to be challenged as the legislation is likely to significantly impact on how these products are marked.
If adoption of such laws proves successful, it is possible that there will be pressure on other governments, such as EU, Australia and other major meat producing nations to follow this lead.
In some ways the Chinese have been very successful in marketing and separately naming plant based protein products for many centuries, tofu 豆腐 and many of its different forms (hard, soft, fried, dried etc). Maybe the plant based protein industry can look at tofu as an example of how separate positioning of tofu products in the market can still be highly successful.
A historical note that up until [I don’t remember when, others might] it was common to see prepackaged and canned foods across the globe registered with the Pennsylvania Dept of Agriculture (I think it was). It was done to make it legal to sell the product in the US state of Pennsylvania. Rather than challenging the state law and limiting marketability processors rolled over and registered their foodstuffs.
How different from modern debate about halal or kosher, usually done for the same purposes - eg marketability and market share rather than any support or belief by most companies.
There are other examples where a substitute or alternative product has been highly successful in its own right with its own name is…butter and margarine. I expect in the US, like Australia, margarine is margarine while butter is butter even though margarine is a alternative to butter. I wonder if such examples would be used to defend any challenges to the proposed legislation in the US states, as it does make mockery of the claims of free speech and censorship. It appears the plant based protein industry are trying to protect their ability to leverage off meat names and products.
It will be a sad day to see Tuna, Swordfish and Mackerel steaks banned from the shops.
Being English the universality of a single word to be a proper noun, an adjective and multiple meanings is what makes it English IMO.
Bring on the steaks, and just be sure to read the product label before you buy. As our local butcher refuses to eat seafood there’s no need to be concerned about what sort of steak it is. Likewise the supermarkets might like to do the same and ensure there are separate cabinets for each type of product. The chicken in the chicken cabinet, the lamb with the lamb, and the hoofed bovine product with… ?
As that is what they already do, can they put the plant based and laboratory grown stuff in the cabinet with the green eco label?
It’s unlikely those who discovered curdled soy milk (bean curd) were thinking of the marketing opportunities and product differentiation. The stuff has been around for several thousand years. It’s never needed market positioning. It has such a long tradition as a staple in Asia where real cooking evolved. Apologies to the slow learners in France.
What ever the way forward, silken describes many things other than tofu. Steak describes many things other than a lump of hoofed bovine, and beef can mean many other things.
Thinking of beef sausages and bully beef or beef stock it has very loose usage. Similar to vague product descriptions of other products such as crab sticks (aka seafood extender) or chicken nuggets.
P.S.
Yes, the use of ‘Tofu’ as a product label is a relatively recent thing. Well 250 years old in Western Culture, which is still recent relative to the origin of the product.
I have been using Flora Pro Activ Margarine Spread Buttery for years for the plant sterols.
The main colours on the packs are green and white. Even the word “Buttery” is not butter coloured or on a butter coloured background, and there are certainly no images of dairy cows on the packs.
Contrast that with the deceptive and misleading behaviour of the plant manufacturers with illustration of chickens and such like on their dodgey packaging.
When I have been checking out the mark downs in the meat departments at Coles and Woollies, I have often seen what appeared to be real meat products only to find out that they were not on closer inspection.
If I was a full time Vegetarian, that would prove just as risky in picking up the wrong pack of animal protein. Playing with the labelling is a weak solution IMO.
Why can’t Woolies, Coles etc keep the products separate, just as they do for the beef, the chicken and the fish etc? It’s almost as if the supermarkets want to create confusion on purpose.
No because ‘butter’ has other meanings apart from the dairy product. Just as ‘meat’ has other meanings than the flesh of a beast. OTOH ‘beef’ (in the context of food) is necessarily the flesh of cattle, ‘pork’ of pigs etc.
I sometimes think the ‘_m’ stands for mischievous.
Yes, there is the potential for confusion. But if I’m adapting a recipe to be vegetarian, a vegetable product labeled as ‘steak’ or ‘mince’ is an easy way to identify what to substitute. We need to make sure that the solution balances those two points.
There isn’t potential. It happens. Our elderly parents have bought both plant based mince and plant based cheese not realising what it was when in the supermarket. They went of the big wording on the label (mince and cheese) and not the smaller plant based or non-dairy (‘weasel’) words which accompanied the prominent words on the label.
We have also had to look twice on occasion seeing mince on special in the meat section, only to realise after looking at the nutritional panel and reading further something was amiss.
Even the major supermarkets now include plant based mince in the meat section…rather than where they traditionally would have been kept…in the general refrigeration area. This adds to the potential for products to be bought by accident and adds to the confusion.
Here are some examples of labelling where plant based or non-dairy isn’t as predominant as mince/cheese:
and there are many others. Intentionally deceptive to have accidental buys. Will let others be the judge.
On topic. Some in Texas seem to have a ‘beef’ with the competition. Is there such a pressing need to fight over how a word is used?
I’m all for product labelling that is clear and reliable, and brands protecting their brand names. Whether a legislated restriction in Texas on the use of the word meat or beef is used is a solution? It seems a little hypocritical (comic) given how freely we use language. At which point does the silliness end?
Aside from requiring unlike products to be shelved separately. Does it make more sense to define how the alternatives are labelled. EG ‘Synthetic or Cultured Beef’ and ‘Soy Beef’ work for me. Consumers took to synthetic yarns and cloth like they were revolutionary. One extract of Soy or Almonds is called ‘xyz milk’.
There is enough recent consumer and product history to suggest practical solutions. And as @phb suggested, that just as Tofu is a recognised product, it might work to call synthetic beef something unique. Possibly not rayon or nylon.
Hopefully there is room for a sensible and pragmatic discussion. The mischief if we become too absolute will surely follow.
Note:
I’d look forward to the day I can purchase a ‘synth beef steak’ that tastes of beef and looks as good as the original. Honestly! I’ll likely need to live another 60 years to be sure.
Call it Leef if it isn’t really beef, call it Vamb if it isn’t really Lamb, Vicken for Chicken replacement or even Licken (finger licken is good), put some Vork or Lork on ya fork might go down a treat. Some Vish would be Lish if it isn’t fish. Please note I claim intellectual property rights and assert my writer’s rights
“My experiences of eating vegetarian in India are that soy is not necessary or even a key ingredient.”
Perhaps not, but spice is, and my wife and I can’t stand too much spice and we both loath chili with a passion.
I prefer more Asian flavours. That a protein replacement is not really sourced from a living animal is not a problem. Be it naturally plant derived or other.
I’m from an oats and old boots heritage, hence nearly anything tastes better. In Australia there is no shortage of choice.
