Vegetable “hams”, “steaks”: the Council of State once again suspends the ban on using these names

New setback for the government in the battle of steaks. This Wednesday, the summary judge of the Council of State rendered his decision on the legality of the ban imposed on agri-food companies from using terms like “vegetable steak” or “vegetable schnitzel”. A decision which comes a few weeks before the implementation of this measure.

Last February, the executive published a decree prohibiting the use of certain terms “traditionally designating foodstuffs of animal origin for the description, marketing or promotion of foodstuffs based on vegetable proteins”. Among the names concerned were “bavette d’loyau”, “tabette”, “ham” or even “steak” and “bifteck”. Please note, however, that these products, manufactured or marketed elsewhere in the European Union or in a third country, may use these terms. French economic operators had three months, from the end of February, to “adapt their labeling, as well as the possibility of marketing foodstuffs manufactured or labeled before its entry into force until stocks are exhausted, and at the latest one year from from its publication.

Contacted by several companies directly concerned by this decision, the judge finally decided to suspend this decree, in the name of a "serious doubt about the legality of this ban", pending a future decision from the Court of Justice of the European Union.

More information to come...