Susan McDonald proposes inquiry into ‘meat’ labels on vegan, vegetarian food

Nationals senator Susan McDonald wants an inquiry into the labelling of vegan and vegetarian foods like mince and sausages as meat. Have your say here.

Vegan and vegetarian foods labelled as mince, bacon or sausages will be scrutinised in a new inquiry as the red-meat industry seeks to beef up protections for animal product terms.

Queensland Nationals senator Susan McDonald has launched a Senate inquiry into food-labelling laws to investigate whether terms like “meat-free mince,” “sausages made with plants” and “vegan bacon” were acceptable labels.

Senator McDonald, who formerly owned a butcher shop, said it was up to non-meat food
makers to come up with their own distinct terms for products instead of trading on “long-established” names of animal proteins.

Nationals Senator Susan McDonald has launched an inquiry into meat product labels after complaints about terms like 'vegan bacon'. Picture: Supplied

“There are intellectual property issues, and in our export legislation we have clear definitions of meat being the product of an animal, but there are gaps domestically,” she said.

Red Meat Advisory Council chairman John McKillop said the brand of natural beef, lamb and goat was being “denigrated” by companies deliberately using “piggyback marketing” to sell
an “inferior product”. “It is a national disgrace that highly processed plant-based protein made from imported ingredients are allowed to be labelled as Australian meat,” he said.

Originally published as Susan McDonald proposes inquiry into ‘meat’ labels on vegan, vegetarian food