The ban on the expressions “soy steaks” and “vegetable sausages” annulled

By two decisions of 28 January 2025, the Council of State aligned itself with the position of the CJEU by affirming the annulment of the decrees prohibiting the use of the expressions “soya steaks” and “vegetable sausages”.

Consumer information on foodstuffs: the judgment of the CJEU of 4 October 2024

By a judgment of 4 October 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered a landmark judgment concerning consumer information on foodstuffs, focusing on the issue of the possibility for Member States to prohibit in general the use of terms of animal origin to designate substitutes of plant origin.

In order to answer this question, the Court of Justice of the European Union has cross-read Articles 38, 7, 9 and 17 of the Regulation on the provision of food information to consumers (Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011).

It first recalls that this Regulation governs the field of the name of foodstuffs and that its provisions must be understood as “expressly harmonizing, within the meaning of Article 38 (1) of the said Regulation, the protection of consumers from the risk of being misled by the use of names, other than legal names, consisting of terms from the butchery, deli meat and fishmongering sectors, to describe, market or promote foodstuffs containing vegetable proteins instead of proteins of animal origin, including in their entirety, and, therefore, oppose the enactment by a Member State of national measures that regulate or prohibit the use of such names” (paragraph 49 of the decision of the CJEU of 4 October 2024 aff. C-438/23).

The CJEU notes that the contested decree (No.2022-947) does not contain a “legal name”, within the meaning of Regulation EU 1169/2011, but only concerns the question of what are the “usual names” or “descriptive names” whose use is prohibited to designate foodstuffs based on plant proteins (paragraph 80).

However, the CJEU concludes that Member States cannot generally prohibit the use of terms of animal origin, unless a specific legal designation for proteins of plant origin is established, since producers are required to comply with their obligation to indicate the name of these foods by the use of common names or descriptive names (recital 83).

The decrees prohibiting the use of the expressions “soy steaks” and “vegetable sausages” annulled by the Council of State

As a result of this case law, the final annulment of the decrees of 29 June 2022 and 26 February 2024 was therefore expected, with the possible publication of a new decree setting the specific legal name for foodstuffs based on proteins of plant origin.

On 28 January 2025, the Council of State issued two decisions in line with the previous judgment of the CJEU.

In this case, the plaintiff companies applied, by two separate procedures, to the Council of State to request the annulment for excess of power of the decree of 26 February 2024 and the decree of 29 June 2022 relating to the use of certain names used to designate foods containing plant proteins, based on the judgment rendered by the CJEU on 4 October 2024.

On the basis of this judgment, the Conseil d ‘Etat definitively annulled the two decrees, noting that they were taken for the application of legislative provisions contrary to European Union law, and that they are therefore deprived of a legal basis, without it being necessary to examine all the pleas in law of the parties.

This position of the Council of State, referring only to the arguments developed at the European level, recalls the imperative nature of the principle of the primacy of the positions held by the European courts or the European texts, with regard to the judicial positions held at the national level or the national legislative or regulatory texts.

In addition, it should be noted that these two decisions are part of a context marked by the government’s desire to regulate consumer information on foodstuffs, with the aim of transparency, which is illustrated in particular by the publication of a decree on February 13, 2025, in force since February 19, 2025, on the obligation of display, at the expense of restaurateurs, to indicate the origin of meat offered for consumption, in a legible and visible way (display, indication on cards and menus, or other support).