Overview

• MEPs approved an amendment to the EU’s farm market rules that would reserve terms such as steak, sausage, burger and hamburger for products containing animal meat.
• The text defines meat as the edible parts of animals and explicitly excludes cultivated meat, extending the restriction to commonly used plant‑based labels.
• The ban is part of the revision of the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets and does not take immediate effect pending interinstitutional talks.
• Parliament negotiators plan to open talks with member states around 14 October, with a target of final adoption next month if an agreement is reached.
• PPE rapporteur Céline Imart championed the change as consumer protection, while MEPs including Valentina Palmisano and Pierfrancesco Maran criticized it as ideological and harmful to the plant‑protein market, and the move intersects with a 2024 EU court ruling that limited national bans absent an EU definition.