On 4 October 2024, the EU Court of Justice finally announced its long-awaited decision on meat sounding, which France had tried to thwart with a decree banning the use of terms such as ‘sausage,citizen’ and ‘beef steak’ to designate foods made with proteins of vegetal or other origin (i.e. mycoproteins, microalgae). (1)
1) Vegetarians and vegetable protein producers against the French Republic, case C-438/23
The French legislator, as we have seen, had tried to prohibit meat sounding through a specific decree (2022-947). However, this decree has never been applied, precisely because of the administrative dispute that gave rise to the case in question. (2)
The associations Protéines France, AVF (Association végétérienne de France), European Vegetarian Union (EVU) and the company Beyond Meat Inc. have in fact filed an appeal with the French Council of State, to request the annulment of the aforementioned decree because it conflicts with current European law. (3)
The Council of State of Paris in turn, given the possible conflict of the contested decree with the Food Information Regulation (EU) No 1169/11, stayed the proceedings and referred certain questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for a preliminary ruling.
2) Preliminary questions
The preliminary questions submitted by the French Council of State to the Court of Justice of the European Union are essentially two:
– do Member States have the right to introduce bans that affect the marketing of goods, through national laws that intervene on matters without harmonised rules?
– if successful, would the French decree in its original form be proportionate to the stated objective of achieving ‘transparency’ in consumer information?
3) EU Court of Justice, the decision
Food Information Regulation (EU) No 1169/11 – in establishing a uniform system of rules for consumer information on food products – has provided that ‘the name of the food is its legal name. In the absence of this, the name of the food is its usual name; where a usual name does not exist or is not used, a descriptive name is provided’ (Article 17). (4)
Member States, consequentially:
– can introduce specific legal names (e.g. durum wheat semolina, Panettone, in Italy), provided that they do not conflict with the marketing standards defined at European level (i.e. olive oils);
– cannot prevent the use of usual or descriptive names with general and abstract prohibitions, where there is no legal name in relation to the names evoked.
4) Green light for meat sounding, not also for cheese sounding
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) seems to have followed the approach taken in its judgment of 14 June 2017, in case C-422/16 (Verband Sozialer Wettbewerb eV v TofuTown.com GmbH). (5) And so:
– cheese sounding. The use of names such as vegetal cheese, tofu butter, vegan cream and similar to present vegetarian and vegan foods. In fact, these products do not meet the requirements established by the Common Market Organisation for the use of legal names ‘cheese, butter, cream’;
– meat sounding. It is not possible to prohibit the use of names that recall meat and its cuts, meat preparations and meat-based products, unless these are the subject of specific legal denominations (such as ham and baked ham, in Italy); (6)
– in any case, is up to the competent national authorities to assess whether the specific ways in which a food product is presented or promoted misleads the consumer, and, if necessary, to sanction the food business operator responsible.
5) Fair information practices
All commercial information related to foodstuffs – whether they are mandatory, such as the name, or optional, such as the commercial name – must not mislead the consumer as regards the essential characteristics of the product. The essential characteristics of the product include, among other things, its nature and identity, its properties and composition. (7)
It is also prohibited to suggest, through appearance, description or illustrations, the presence of a particular food or ingredient, while in fact a naturally present component or an ingredient normally used in that food has been replaced with a different component or ingredient. Operators presenting plant-based products with names inspired by meat must therefore clarify their plant origin (e.g. veggie burger).
6) Provisional conclusions
The sentence of the CJEU of 4 October 2024 definitively clarifies the illegitimacy of the various national regulations adopted with the aim of prohibiting the use of terms traditionally associated with meat on foods that do not contain it.
Italian law against meat sounding– already in conflict with EU law due to the manifest violation of the Technical Regulations Information System (TRIS) (8) – is therefore also illegitimate from a substantive point of view, as is the French decree.
Dario Dongo
Footnotes
(1) Judgment of the Court in Case C-438/23, Protéines France and Others. Food labelling: where no legal name has been adopted, a Member State may not prohibit the use of terms traditionally associated with products of animal origin to designate a product containing vegetable proteins. Press release. 4.10.24 https://tinyurl.com/5bznwcrd
(2) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Meat sounding, the word to the EU Court of Justice. FT (Food Times).
(3) Protéines France represents the interests of companies active in the French vegetable protein market; AVF and EVU promote vegetarianism and represent vegetarian consumers, in France and in the European Union; Beyond Meat Inc. produces and markets vegetable protein products.
(4) Dario Dongo. Name of the food. FARE (Food and Agriculture Requirements). 19.8.17
(5) Dario Dongo. ‘Cheese sounding’, the EU Court of Justice confirms the ban. DO (Food & Agriculture Requirements). 15.6.17
(6) Ministerial Decree of 21 September 2005, amended by the subsequent Ministerial Decree of 26 May 2016. The proposal for a new decree that repeals and replaces the previous one, with the inclusion of bresaola and speck, was notified by the Italian Government to the European Commission on 3 January 2024 under the TRIS system. See https://tinyurl.com/2ahutu3u
(7) Reg. (EU) 1169/11, articles 7 and 36
(8) Dario Dongo. ‘Synthetic meat’ and ‘meat sounding’, the Italian law self-extinguishes. FT (Food Times).
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
