| | Tofurky takes Arkansas to court over the word ‘meat’
By Maura Judkis
July 23 at 1:08 PM
washingtonpost.com
Under Arkansas law, beginning Wednesday, meatless meat products such as vegetarian hot dogs and plant-based deli lunch meat can no longer be called either of those things. In an effort to prevent consumer confusion, the state passed a law in March that imposes fines on companies making meatless meat if they use words that describe meat — such as “turkey” or “steak” or “bacon” — when describing products that aren’t derived from animals. The same goes for makers of nut-based milks, which risk a fine for using the word “milk,” and even cauliflower rice, which must be called “riced cauliflower,” instead.
But is the law really about consumer confusion, or is it about protecting the state’s meat, dairy and rice farmers? That’s what a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by the American Civil Liberties Union, Good Food Institute, Animal Legal Defense Fund and ACLU of Arkansas alleges.
According to the complaint, filed Monday, “The Act is a restriction on commercial speech that prevents companies from sharing truthful and non-misleading information about their products. It does nothing to protect the public from potentially misleading information. Instead, it creates consumer confusion where none existed before in order to impede competition.” The suit, filed on behalf of Turtle Island Foods, which does business as the Tofurky Co., says the act violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment by censoring companies that are truthfully describing their products. The suit also says the act violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the dormant Commerce Clause, which affects interstate commerce.
The lawsuit is not the first of its kind. Several states, including Louisiana, Missouri and Mississippi, have adopted laws governing the use of language regarding plant-based products, and vegetarian meat companies have filed suit in the latter two states. Labeling laws aren’t just an American thing, either: In April, a committee in the European Parliament passed an amendment prohibiting plant-based products from being labeled as steak, sausage, escalope, burger or hamburger. The proposal will be put to a vote by the European Parliament in the fall.
If states are worried about meat and dairy farmers losing ground to plant-based food companies, they have a good reason for concern: Nondairy milk sales increased 61 percent between 2012 and 2017. The investment firm UBS has projected that the market for plant-based meat will increase from $4.6 billion in 2018 to $85 billion in 2030.
... washingtonpost.com |
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