Farm organisations have welcomed the news that MEPs voted in favour of tightening labelling rules for non-dairy alternatives.

An amendment was passed in the European Parliament this week which meant a ban will be in place for the use of words such as “butter”, “milk” and other traditional dairy product names in relation to non-dairy alternatives often seen marketed towards vegetarian and vegan diets.

While the terms already had a degree of protection from a previous ruling, it adds to the case to exclusively use the terms for dairy products.

Conor Mulvihill, director of Dairy Industry Ireland, welcomed the news and said that while they had no problem with vegan products, there was a problem when it came to the use of dairy terms.

“The problem is in the appropriation of dairy terms for commercial or nutritional gains,” he said.

Meat products

However, MEPs did not give the same support to a ban on the use of the word “burger”, “mince” and other traditional meat product names where they were used to market non-meat products. This effectively means that the term “burger” can still be used to market vegetarian or vegan meals that come in a burger style.

There has been long-running debate over the use of traditional food terms as the market for vegan and vegetarian food expands, and the recent European Parliament debate has done nothing to dampen the mood of proponents of either side.

The amendment only passed European Parliament stage and still has to go through the European Commission.