this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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I can tell you a little about how Germany does this and I think the rest of the EU & France should be similar. There is a government body defining what specific foods are and if your food doesn't match that, you can't name it like the food in question. And that does make sense - butter has to be made from milk and not some palm oil mixed together by shady businesses and milk has to come from an animal and can't be water & white paint.
This does make sense and really protects the consumer. It does - however - really run into problems when dealing with those vegetarian meat replacements. It would make sense to sell a "vegetarian ham", but ham has an exact, legal definition and part of that definition is that ham has to contain meat.
So cocoa butter, peanut butter, and other nut butters are out.
It's dumb. It's not about protecting consumers, it's about protecting corporate interests.
Cocoa and peanut butter got grandfathered in. If they were to be introduced to the EU market today you'd see them called cocoa fat and peanut creme.
Appeal to tradition fallacy
I find it helpful to have the thing being imitated as part of the name, but not the full name. It makes for an easy way to know what the taste and texture should be and how it can be used in cooking. My kid developed a dairy allergy recently and vegan butter in particular is so easy to substitute in old favorite recipes without changing the flavor much or cooking method. As for meat imitations, a “vegetarian steak” (or ham) label conveys a lot about the texture, moisture, saltiness, and cooking techniques you can expect to use while a generic name such as “plant protein block” leaves you much more clueless as to what the texture and cooking method is meant to be for that item. I don’t think it should be legal to sell plant substitutes as only “steak “ or “butter”, but calling it “plant steak” or “plant butter” is way more straightforward and easy to fit on a label than a lengthy description of “plant patty with a fibrous, chewy texture and savory flavor resembling steak.”
"vegan grill patty". German actually had a word specifically for this kind of stuff for ages, goes back to Max Bircher. The man had some sense and didn't try to call it "Gemüsefrikadelle".
A milk is what I mix with my cereal, pour in my coffee, use in a pancake mixture and so on. I can't see any logic behind limiting this to animal products other than a political agenda.
cries in coal butter
No it doesn't. I used plant butter and plant milk in all my recipes and it was fine.