France’s highest administrative court has annulled two government decrees seeking to ban the use of animal descriptors for plant-based proteins.
“France cannot prohibit the use of common names of foods of animal origin to market foods containing vegetable proteins,” the Conseil d’Etat, or Council of State, said in a statement yesterday (28 January).
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The court ruling would seemingly bring an end to a long-running saga dating back to 2020, when France’s parliament issued a new labelling law to prevent plant-based manufacturers from using terms such as sausage or steak.
However, despite the Conseil d’Etat suspending a subsequent decree from France’s agriculture ministry in 2022, the government authority tried again in 2023 and the following year with new decrees. But the same court threw out those motions with another suspension in April last year.
Those have now been annulled by the Conseil d’Etat in the latest ruling.
“Seized by companies and professional associations, the Council of State today annulled two decrees prohibiting the naming of products containing vegetable proteins by terms of butchery, delicatessen and fishmonger, such as ‘steak’ or ‘sausage,’” Conseil d’Etat added in yesterday’s statement.
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By GlobalDataThe court confirmed: “In 2020, parliament banned the use of terms used to designate foods of animal origin to market products containing plant proteins. The government clarified this ban by a decree of June 29, 2022, then a decree of February 26, 2024.”
Just Food has asked the Conseil d’Etat to clarify if the saga has now been put to bed with the new ruling given its previous actions did not prevent the government from continually trying to enact legislation.
The representative category body the European Vegetarian Union (EVU), which had contested the initial decree in conjunction with the French Vegetarian Association (AVF), Proteines France and US-based Beyond Meat [the companies and professional associations mentioned by Conseil d’Etat], suggested otherwise.
EVU said in a separate statement the Conseil d’Etat had referred its case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in 2023, adding that in October last year the ECJ “ruled that the bans were not compatible with EU law”.
In the same statement issued today, the EVU said: “Although the case went the way of the NGOs, the ruling does not forbid the French government from proposing a new ban that follows the legal requirements set by the European Court of Justice.
“The decision from last year ruled that member states can only implement bans under certain conditions. A country would need to legally define meat products and the ban could only be applied to products produced in that country.”
Despite the outlook painted by the EVU, its senior policy manager, Rafael Pinto, described the Conseil d’Etat ruling as “an important victory for consumer protection”.
He added: “We hope the ruling can change the priorities of the French government and better align them with citizens’ needs, such as supporting sustainable farming, increasing competitiveness and protecting consumers, instead of continuing down this inefficient path.”
EVU suggested in its statement the French government will now have to fork out legals fees of €3,000 ($3,119), as well as paying the same amounts to AVF, Proteines France and Beyond Meat.
France’s ministry of agriculture and Proteines France, which has members including European plant-based producers such as Avril, La Vie and Planted, had not responded to Just Food’s request for comment on the Conseil d’Etat ruling at the time of writing.
In the context of the judgement by the ECJ last year, under the auspices of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Conseil d’Etat explained its position.
“In accordance with this ruling by the CJEU, the Council of State considers the 2022 and 2024 decrees, which prohibited the use of common or descriptive names, consisting of terms from the ‘butchery, delicatessen and fishmongering’ sectors, to describe, market or promote foods containing plant proteins, to be illegal and contrary to European regulations.”
This publication also contacted NGO’s ProVeg International and the Good Food Institute (Europe) for comment but both directed Just Food to the statements from EVU and the AVF.
AVF president Mathieu Nollet said in an individual statement: “The CJEU, and the Council of State, following its opinion, have logically protected plant-based alternatives from these anachronistic decrees.
“[It is] the right decision to take in order to preserve the integrity of European free trade, to preserve the competitiveness of national producers and to support a booming economic sector that is decisive for the ecological transition.”
