'Hot dog populism': EU votes to ban veggie meat terms

European Parliament politicians have voted to ban terms like steak or meat to describe vegetarian protein products.

Politicians in the European Parliament have voted to ban the labelling of vegetarian protein with terms such as steak or meat. 

The MPs voted 532 to 78 to define meat as "edible parts of animals" and to safeguard the use of words like steak, escalope, sausage or burger for animal and not plant-based products. 

The proposal will go to a parliamentary committee to be clarified, before going back to the EU executive arm and then to the bloc's 27 member states for further negotiations. 

Céline Imart, a conservative German MP and former farmer, said using meat-related terms for vegetarian products was misleading.

"Now, we're not talking about banning vegetable or plant-based alternatives, of course not. But I think that terms should speak for themselves and should mean what they mean," she said in a parliamentary debate on Tuesday.

Her colleague, Austrian MP Anna Stürgkh from the liberal NEOS party, said consumers are not easily fooled by food labels on non-meat products. 

"A beef tomato doesn't contain any beef ... Ladies' fingers are not made of actual ladies' fingers," she said. 

"Let's trust consumers and stop this hot dog populism."