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Texas lawmakers approve bill banning 'meat' & 'beef' on plant-based food labels

thehill.com

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Re: Texas lawmakers approve bill banning 'meat' & 'beef' on plant-based food labels

#51

Post by jgwil2 »

King-Aaron wrote: post #43
jgwil2 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there are companies that have already built up brand recognition using these names. This regulation places an unfair burden on them. In any case, if your premise that people are not silly is correct, surely they don't need to be protected from confusing animal meat with meat substitutes.

True, but if the companies already have good brand recognition, then a label change shouldn't affect their current sales. I'm sure the marketing teams will come up with something to assist with new customers. Society as a whole seems to be progressing towards a lower meat intake diet, so I would think it's likely that new and existing brands of meat alternatives will continue to do well.

> if the companies already have good brand recognition, then a label change shouldn't affect their current sales.

People recognize a brand by the label. A label change is precisely the kind of thing that would negatively impact brand recognition.

> I'm sure the marketing teams will come up with something to assist with new customers.

That costs money. Hence the unfair burden.

Re: Texas lawmakers approve bill banning 'meat' & 'beef' on plant-based food labels

#52

Post by quantified »

plntbsd wrote: post #46

This is actually a good thing for plant based food producers and veganism in general. Less emulation of nasty animal parts is a good thing.

Seems more of a truth in labeling measure. A product won’t be allowed to say it contains the meat if it doesn’t. Also says that it cannot claim to imitate the meat if it doesn’t. But the bar for “sufficiently imitates to be allowed to say it imitates” is unclear. Any poor imitation of a Picasso is still an imitation.

Talking about “hamburger” is laughable, as ground-up people from Hamburg is forbidden by most culinary guidelines. Waiting for the hammer to fall on hot dog labelling.

Re: Texas lawmakers approve bill banning 'meat' & 'beef' on plant-based food labels

#53

Post by plntbsd »

superkuh wrote: post #25

This is good legislation getting ahead of the inevitable problems when actually good tasting textured vegetable proteins become cheaper than meat. Once it's cheaper than meat it will be used to replace meat to cut costs in anything at all packaged or processed. The labeling requirements will be needed for consumer protection. It seems like it's a broken legislature being right twice a day kind of thing. They're propo…

No. I hate to burst your bubble but governments, especially local do not work like this.

More than likely a few lawmakers got generous donations from Tyson, Cargill et all

Re: Texas lawmakers approve bill banning 'meat' & 'beef' on plant-based food labels

#54

Post by quantified »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #16

Kissing up to the cattle industry. Only an true idiot would think plant based is the same as beef or meat. This is strictly cozying up to beef industry and their lobbyists. This type of thing is an everyday occurrence in Texas.

Maybe someone tricked a legislator into eating one and they were fooled.

Re: Texas lawmakers approve bill banning 'meat' & 'beef' on plant-based food labels

#55

Post by ub99 »

woopwoop wrote: post #31

Is the premise here that beyond beef et al. are trying to trick customers into thinking they are buying regular beef? A moment's thought reveals that to be utterly absurd. Their business model is entirely dependent on people buying their product specifically because it is plant-based. Seems like old-fashioned protection of a favored industry.

They are preparing for the onslaught of cultured meat/dairy/fish.

Re: Texas lawmakers approve bill banning 'meat' & 'beef' on plant-based food labels

#57

Post by igetspam »

mc32 wrote: post #2

I agree with this. Make up your own new word for the new product. Tufu isn't "bean cheese". People don't need "to be fooled" in order to get them to try highly processed plant products. Truth in advertising and all that. If you're selling processed plants or insects, great, market it and label it as such. If it's yummy, people will lap it up.

This is stupid. Meat is not solely used to describe the output of slaughter. I'll even help you out:

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/meat

We've used "meat" to describe lots of things that we eat for a very long time. This is purely bending the knee to a lobby and hyper regulation of enterprise. It makes sense since that's a core value of republican... wait a second! What's happening? What about free enterprise and not having to do things that go against your personal values in business, like serving The Gays or paying for birth control????

Nobody is fooled. It's called "Beyond Beef," not "Beef." This regulation would make it illegal to label something as "Not Chicken" because lobbyist convinced the state that Texans are too stupid and illiterate to recognize anything but the word "Chicken." Frankly, this law is f'ing insulting. I live in Texas and I know how to read.

Full disclosure: I'm not vegan or even vegetarian.

Re: Texas lawmakers approve bill banning 'meat' & 'beef' on plant-based food labels

#58

Post by quantified »

mc32 wrote: post #35
ub99 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right… the primary motivation of Texas lawmakers is that they are concerned about people being fooled… I want to be able to buy non-dairy yogurt and non-dairy mayo. Not “yellow paste” or “white soft creamy desert”. There is nothing wrong with products adapting to new realities and offering alternatives under the same general name. These products are clearly labeled already. The only reason to introduce this legislati…

Nothing wrong with calling it plant protein. Mayonnaise is just a dressing like thousand island, Russian, ranch and hundreds of others who acquired their own names. Yogurt I'm mildly ok with since basically it just means coagulated milk and also includes the necessary bacteria.

Call it “Houstonnaise”, that’ll show ‘em.

Re: Texas lawmakers approve bill banning 'meat' & 'beef' on plant-based food labels

#59

Post by Digory »

arblomp wrote: post #5
mc32 wrote: post #2

I agree with this. Make up your own new word for the new product. Tufu isn't "bean cheese". People don't need "to be fooled" in order to get them to try highly processed plant products. Truth in advertising and all that. If you're selling processed plants or insects, great, market it and label it as such. If it's yummy, people will lap it up.

> The bill will also keep companies that produce food from...cell cultures, not slaughtered animals, from using the label “meat,” Do we need to make up a new word for “chunks of bovine muscle tissue” if it wasn’t cut out of a whole-ish cow? Sounds to me like it’s about entrenched farming interests throwing red tape at a perceived threat, not “truth in advertising”. No plant burger or vegan cheeze on the market is nef…

I think it makes sense to standardize some word for the difference, especially since you’re talking about a commodity.

I imagine cheap meat is going to be qualitatively different than cheap Meetabix or whatever they will call it for some years. “It came from a cow” will impose some kind of minimum quality standard — and it’s not clear that standard will always be met in a non standardized market of bovine cell growers.

And the inputs are different. Should an increase in cow meat futures drive up grain prices or plastic clamshell prices?

Re: Texas lawmakers approve bill banning 'meat' & 'beef' on plant-based food labels

#60

Post by Ekaros »

jschwartzi wrote: post #39
underseacables wrote: post #19

They have a point. Almond milk is not milk, that is a fact, but by including the term “milk” it allows then to get into the dairy section of grocery stores, and piggyback on milk as a product. Same here with plant based food.

What a terrible loss for me as a person to be able to go to the store and buy a "milk" that doesn't come from a cow but that I can put on breakfast cereal and drink with my coffee. Meanwhile I don't see Texas aggressively defending the truth that a tomato is really a fruit and shouldn't be placed with other vegetables in the store.

Here the vegetables and fruits are pretty mixed in stores. Are they clearly separated and sectioned in other places of world?
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