European Parliament votes to ban use of words like "burger" or "steak" for plant-food

This just looks like pandering to farmers to me. We see a Europe that is ageing, that is falling behind the US in terms of innovation, that is crumbling in terms of unity and one that is struggling with challenges like climate change and this is what they want to do. I can't see traditional meat-based farming continuing for that much longer. Decades, yes but I expect the supermarket shelves of the 2050's and beyond to have the meat section, if there is one, to be where the plant-based substitutes are now.

As the OP said, this may not go through. We need to be encouraging more plant-based meat, not less. I still eat meat. I can't see myself ever going vegan but I do think the plant-based stuff is just better, health-wise.

Let's rename sausage dogs as well please, too confusing for me, makes me think I should be eating them! I'd also vote for renaming hot dogs, it's false advertising in my opinion. And I'm still mad that kinder chocolate isn't made of children. Not to mention coconut milk, or does a coconut tree have mammary glands now? And from which animal do you get Milk of Magnesia?

These are all other very important name changes the dairy and meat industry should lobby for.

I don't care too much but I'm slightly in favour of making companies come up with new names for this relatively recently made foodstuff although I think Steak* with a big asterisk should suffice rather than an outright ban. Most of these "meat" alternatives are heavily salted and full of ultra-processed ingredients, not really what we should be aiming for in my opinion.

The ultimate goal of all this increased vegetarianism is a reduction in carbon emissions and an improvement in population health, and there are plenty of studies to suggest this would be the case although these must be taken with a grain of salt as the average meat eaters diet is usually pretty terrible. Beef is great if done right, full of essential nutrients and vitamins, but if you are consuming it in a bun with a fatty sugary sauce and a pile of deep fried chips it's no wonder that the results are skewed against it.

If you look at healthy vegan/vegetarian diets across the world they very rarely resemble a western meal with just a straight substitute meat for a plant based processed variety. Instead the meal is centred directly around vegetable/s or legume/s as the primary ingredient. Plant based diets are usually healthier if done right but you need to change your entire view on your meals. If you like chili-con-carne every Tuesday simply substituting the mince for a plant based alternative "mince" will not give the same benefits as changing it to a recipe that focus on chickpeas, pinto beans, kidney beans, lentils etc.

Some pork sausages out there can contain as little as 60% meat with the rest being fillers, usually breadcrumbs. In the interest of fairness are we going to force them to drop the word "sausage" from their packaging?

Well breadcrumbs and onions are vegan friendly, so technically they shouldn't be in a sausage or a burger

It means the beef is 100% Irish beef. Of course the burger is not 100% beef, because then it would be a steak. To make a burger, you do need other ingredients, like a bit of flour to hold it together and onion and pepper to add flavour.

The burger being 77% meat is pretty good to be honest. I am sure if you do some searching you can find better, or should I say worse examples. An EU bill coming in saying "A burger must be at least 50% meat" could well result in some well known brands dropping burger from their description.

I use an egg as a binder instead of breadcrumbs and rarely put onion through my mince especially when feeling lazy.

There's a lot of burgers out there without breadcrumbs and onions, even from McDonalds.

https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/product/hamburger.html

Ye there are and often these additions enhance the actual burger itself, I thought you genuinely believed all burgers had breadcrumbs and onions. The other posters point on not putting "vegan products" in them was ridiculous.

No problem with that. Hamburgers were never 100% meat, that was the whole purpose of them in the first place, it was to use up left over ingredients at the end of the voyage.