France not allowed to ban names like ‘plant-based bacon’

Manufacturers of plant-based meat alternatives are allowed to continue using words like ‘steak’, ‘sausage’ and other meat industry terms in France. The ruling of the French Supreme Court is a big relief for the vegetarian sector.

No ban

The French government is not allowed to ban the use of common names for foods of animal origin for marketing products containing plant proteins, the French Conseil d’Etat (roughly its Supreme Court) ruled on Tuesday. Producers of meat substitutes can therefore continue to use terms such as steak, sausage, bacon or hamburger to market plant-based products.

With the ruling, the Conseil d’Etat voided two decrees issued by the government in 2022 and 2024 to support the French meat industry by banning the use of ‘animal’ designations for plant-based meat substitutes. The European Court of Justice had already ruled that the country could not introduce such a ban.

‘Victory of common sense’

The meat industry lobby had long argued that using meat designations for plant-based products could “mislead” consumers, but manufacturers of plant-based alternatives say they simply use familiar designations to lower the threshold to consuming sustainable meat substitutes. For them, this ruling is a big relief.

“We have just written the final chapter of a legal saga that will go down in history. This is a victory of common sense in the face of pressure from intensive livestock farming lobbies. We are happy to continue calling our products by their names, without compromise or absurdity”, CEO Nicolas Schweitzer of French plant-based alternatives producer La Vie, responded in a press release.