According to new draft guidance currently in development, plant-based products may have restrictions on using terms such as “cheese” or “yoghurt” to describe themselves. The guidance aims to assist trading standards officers in interpreting and enforcing laws governing the labelling and marketing of dairy alternatives.
While plant-based products are already prohibited from using the term “milk” to describe themselves, an early draft of the guidance from February 2022 suggests that this restriction could be expanded to include terms like “cheese” and “yoghurt,” even if accompanied by “vegan” or “plant-based” qualifiers. The draft proposes banning descriptors such as “yoghurt-style” or “cheddar-type,” as well as homophones or misspellings like “mylk.” Additionally, plant-based products may be prohibited from stating that they are “not milk” or positioning themselves as “alternatives” to dairy products.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has informed plant-based companies that local authorities and trading standards officers are responsible for enforcing dairy labelling and marketing standards. The guidance is being prepared by the Food Standards Information Group (FSIG), a collection of senior trading standards experts, to support local officials in applying existing laws. Member of the FSIG, David Pickering, emphasised that they aim to provide a fair and balanced interpretation of the legislation, suggesting that market stakeholders should lobby the government if they disagree with it.
Push for stricter guidelines
Dairy UK, a trade association representing the dairy industry, has advocated for stricter guidelines for plant-based products since at least 2017. Members of Dairy UK include companies such as Arla Foods, Saputo and Müller. The association raised concerns about the misuse of protected dairy terms and the use of qualifying terms to indicate a product’s dairy-free nature. Dairy UK submitted a position paper to Defra supporting the FSIG’s draft proposals and urging the government to protect dairy terms.
If local authorities adopt the strictest interpretations of the draft guidance, the UK would impose stricter regulations compared to both the European Union and the US. The European Court of Justice ruled in 2017 that plant-based brands are prohibited from using terms like “milk,” “butter” or “cheese.” However, Amendment 171, which could have further restricted vegan product descriptions like “creamy,” was dropped following opposition from the plant-based sector and environmental organisations. The US Food and Drug Administration allows the use of the term “milk” for plant-based drinks while recommending the disclosure of nutritional differences.
Lobbying
Documents chronicle a years-long lobbying effort by the dairy industry to block plant-based alternatives from using terms such as ‘cheese’. Plant-based products could be blocked from using terms such as “cheese” or “yoghurt” to describe themselves if new guidance comes into force.
The guidance, which is still in a draft phase, is being prepared to help trading standards officers interpret and enforce laws on how dairy alternatives are described in packaging and marketing. Documents obtained by Unearthed show that the dairy industry has lobbied for tighter enforcement of the legislation for years.
Plant-based products are already banned from describing themselves as “milk”. But an early draft, dated February 2022, suggested the new measures could see that treatment extended to cheese and yoghurt, even if prefaced by ‘vegan’ or ‘plant-based’. Under the draft guidance, brands would be banned from using descriptors such as ‘yoghurt-style’ or ‘cheddar-type’, or homophones or misspellings such as ‘mylk’. The draft suggested plant-based products should even be prohibited from saying they are ‘not milk’ – or describing themselves as ‘alternatives’ to dairy products.
This week Defra wrote to plant-based companies: “responsibility for enforcement of the law on dairy labelling and marketing standards lies solely with local authorities and the Trading Standards Officers acting on their behalf”. A spokesperson for the Food Standards Information Group, a group of senior trading standards experts who are preparing the guidance, said it aimed to support local officials in applying the laws. David Pickering, a member of the FSIG and lead officer for food standards at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, told Unearthed: “We’re trying to come up with a fair and balanced view on what the legislation says, and if certain parts of the market don’t like that it’s up to them to lobby the government to change the legislation.”
Dairy UK, a trade association that describes itself as the “voice of the dairy industry”, has been pushing the government for tougher guidelines for plant-based products since at least 2017. Leading members of Dairy UK include Arla Foods, which makes Anchor and Lurpak butter, Saputo, manufacturer of Cathedral City cheese, and yoghurt brand Müller.
Notes from a Dairy UK committee meeting in July 2017 said a representative of the association had “presented the issue of misuse of protected dairy terms and the grey area of using qualifying terms to indicate the dairy-free nature of a product” at a meeting of the Business Experts Group, a panel of food lobby groups. At the meeting, Dairy UK “had been tasked [by Defra] with developing a briefing paper on the issue to send to the UK’s Enforcement Focus Group in order to have an approved UK position paper clarifying the protection of dairy terms.” At a later Dairy UK committee meeting, “the group shared examples of dairy alternatives on the market misusing protected dairy terms”. The briefing paper was submitted a year later.
The “Enforcement Focus Group” is believed to be a reference to the Food Standards and Information Focus Group (FSIG), an advisory group for local authorities made up of senior trading standards officials. The group started work on the subject in 2020 in response to a referral from a regional group. A spokesperson told Unearthed the FSIG has consulted Dairy UK as it liaises with the Business Experts Group.
The FSIG produced a draft opinion in early 2022, which recommended greater enforcement on the restrictions of terms that can be used to market plant-based food and drink so that consumers do not falsely assume “nutritional equivalence” with dairy products. The FSIG and Defra communicated over the following months, with members of the focus group saying they believe this to be “a policy issue” for the government to take a position on. Dairy UK provided a position paper to Defra in November last year, backing the FSIG’s draft proposals and urging the government to maintain the protection of dairy terms in the Retained EU Law Bill. Dairy UK argues that allusions to dairy will mislead consumers as to plant-based products’ nutritional profile, describing the terms used as “marketing malpractice.”
Cecilia McAleavey, public affairs director of Oatly, said: “The introduction of further restrictions does not provide clarity for consumers. It makes it harder for people to seek out alternatives to dairy and hampers their ability to make informed choices when it comes to their food and drink.” Dr Judith Bryans, chief executive of Dairy UK, said: “The opinion issued by the FSIFG is an interpretation of existing law and does not propose to add new rules – it is intended to make labelling and marketing clearer and minimise opportunities for consumers to be misled.” “Both the FSIFG and Defra have been in contact with a number of interested parties, including the plant-based sector. We have not had any undue influence on this process, we simply expressed our opinion in favour of the FSISG interpretation of existing law.”
“The existing law is a reflection of the fact that dairy foods are unique in their nutrient richness and an essential part of a healthy and balanced diet and cannot be replaced by alternative imitations.” A Defra spokesperson said: “The legal power to enforce longstanding dairy marketing and labelling laws lies with local authorities, and it is simply untrue that Defra has exercised any influence in this area.”
Quorn joins objection to new labelling rules
Meat alternatives brand Quorn has become a member of the UK’s Plant-Based Food Alliance (PBFA), joining other players such as Alpro, Oatly, and Upfield. It comes as the PBFA works to prevent the adoption of new draft trading standards guidance, which would prevent plant-based products from using dairy-like descriptor terms such as “m*lk”, “alternative to cheese”, or “yogurt-style”. “We have been fighting the proposed guidance to restrict plant-based labelling for over a year now and we will continue to do so, because we believe that the Government should be doing all it can to promote the sector rather than hinder it,” said Marisa Heath, PBFA CEO.
Quorn was originally founded to provide food security; scientists recognised as far back as the 1960s that meat would not be able to meet the protein demands of a growing population, and their research eventually led them to develop the mycoprotein used in Quorn. Since its commercial launch in 1985, the company has continued to promote sustainability, using strategies such as regenerative farming and environmental documentaries. “Quorn is such an excellent example of a company using the power of science to come up with sustainable solutions to global crises. We know that policymakers will take notice of what Quorn has to say as a member of the Alliance going forward,” Heath said.
PBFA UK was founded in 2021, with the aim of providing a voice for the country’s growing plant-based sector. The organisation said it would campaign for policies such as public health campaigns promoting the benefits of plant-based diets and environmental labelling on food packaging. Last year, PBFA UK called on the country’s government and citizens to tackle climate change by reducing the number of animal products consumed, as the country was hit by record-breaking heatwaves. The organisation had previously criticised the UK government’s Food Strategy White Paper, calling it a “missed opportunity” to exploit the sustainability of plant-based foods.
“It’s fantastic to have such a strong player in the market like Quorn join us in our push for policies that promote plant-based eating in the UK,” said Heath. “There is so much the Government can do to encourage climate-friendly diets – in the form of trade, public procurement, research, marketing, as well as regulation – and we really need the big plant-based companies by our side as we negotiate our way there.”
Italy
Italy could become the latest country to impose stringent labelling rules on vegan meat products. The threat to alternative protein companies comes as a new bill calling for a ban on plant-based items using “meaty” terminology was submitted into the Italian parliament. The bill echoes similar language restriction attempts in France and South Africa. There, lawmakers pushed for terms such as “burger,” “bacon,” and “sausages” to be made unavailable to the plant-based meat sector.
The wording of the bill reveals that it is an attempt to bolster the domestic livestock sector in Italy. However, it goes on to cite the issue of vegan meat potentially “misleading consumers.” It specifically refers to terms such as “tofu steak” as being a “phenomenon as unfortunate as it is widespread.”
Additionally, the bill states that buyers might be duped into believing that plant-based and animal meat have the same nutritional benefits. That is, if they use similar or identical terms in their descriptions. Global food awareness organization ProVeg International has fiercely criticized this point.
“This argument is misleading, partly because plant-based alternatives are nutritious and have less cholesterol than conventional meat products, but also because they have a number of other advantages over conventional meat products,” Jasmijn de Boo, Vice President of ProVeg International said in a statement. She added that in light of the climate crisis and the proven impact that meat production has on it, the Italian government must see sense and reject the bill. In 2021, the European Parliament voted in a new sustainable food system strategy. It was designed, in part, to put nutritious eating at the forefront of all supply chains. One of the main motivations was to tackle the “overconsumption of meat,” which is prevalent in Europe. It was widely assumed that this was a show of support for the adoption of plant-based eating. However, such a shift could be severely impacted by overzealous labelling restrictions.