Thanks to strict EU legislation, only dairy products can be called milk, cream, butter, cheese, or yogurt, the European Court of Justice said in a ruling that nixes using such terms as “soy milk” and “tofu butter” for plant-based products, reports the news site Retail Detail. “To be clear: the products themselves are not banned, but their names are.”
The U.S. dairy industry has tried for years to ban beverage competitors from using the world “milk” to describe their products. “The FDA has repeatedly declined to weigh in on the subject—despite repeat pressure from both the soybean and dairy lobbies,” said the Washington Post in February.
The Court of Justice, in Luxembourg, ruled in a case that pitted the German company TofuTown against a German group that claimed the names are misleading. The court ruled that it was wrong to use names such as “milk” or “cheese” to describe a plant-based food, since the names are restricted to animal products even if the label clearly indicates the origin of the dairy alternative.
The terms “peanut butter,” “cocoa butter,” and “coconut milk” are explicitly permitted under the EU rules, said Retail Detail. “A poignant detail: the entire legislation is only for dairy alternatives, which means that meat and fish replacements can easily label themselves ‘vegetarian chicken’ and ‘vegetarian tuna.’ ”
One European foodmaker said it calls its product soy drink, which avoids the labeling issue. The Belgian dairy industry cheered the ruling and said that “there are major nutritional differences between milk” and plant-based drinks. The vegetarian group EVA said it was nonsense to contend that consumers are being misled: “The ban’s reasoning is purely commercial.”