Australian Farmers Want Laws Changed To Stop Vegan Meat Products Calling Themselves Meat

When you shop through your local supermarket, you might be greeted with a bunch of meat products that don't contain meat.

Whether they have a clever play on words or one key letter is changed, the packaging indicates that what you're about to buy certainly isn't bacon or mince meat.

However, labelling laws could soon be changed in Australia to prevent these companies call their products 'meat'.

While it might sound like it's nitpicking or splitting hairs, actual producers of meat aren't happy with the fake and processed versions being likened to theirs.

Texas' House of Representatives voted in favour of the Texas Meat and Imitation Food Act this week and the bill will be forwarded onto the Senate.

Under the rule, it would prevent plant-based protein products from being called 'beef', 'chicken', 'pork' or 'meat'.

The Australian meat industry is closely watching what happens in the US to see whether a similar ruling could be brought in here.

Australian Pork Limited chief executive Margo Andrae said the industry needs to be protected in the way products are marketed to the masses.

"The US has been very proactive on dealing with this issue," she said. "I know Texas has been keen to try and find a way to make sure there's truth in labelling.

"So it's wonderful to see this progress, and at the same time here in Australia we're actually starting processes to push for the same thing."

There has already been a massive push in Australia for labelling laws to prevent dairy-free milk products being called milk.

There's been a huge spike in the amount of products on offer over the years, including soy, almond, rice, goat, hemp, coconut and oat milks filling the supermarket shelves.

Merriam Webster says milk is defined as 'a fluid secreted by the mammary glands of females for the nourishment of their young'.

As a result, Aussie dairy farmers want labelling laws changed in Australia to ensure that the word milk is only used for such.

President Terry Richardson said in a statement: "Australia needs to restore truth in product labelling so that consumers can make more accurate food and beverage choices.

"Over the pact decade, a growing number of plant-based products have cropped up, using the name milk, co-opting the look and feel of dairy milk right down to the packaging, and trading on dairy's reputation to gain a marketing advantage."

It's this effort that Margo Andrae is hoping to see transfer into the meat industry.

"These companies need to be held to the same account as us around the food safety standards," she said. "People need to know what is in these products so they have to open the transparency around how they develop the products.

"Don't call it meat, don't call it pork or beef or lamb if it's not."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie