K A S H R U T . C O M_©

November 7, 2019 from the Forbes:

"In a win for the First Amendment, Mississippi will no longer ban plant-based food companies from labeling their products with terms like 'veggie burgers' and 'vegan bacon.' On Thursday, the state dropped rules that would have enforced the labeling ban, and instead replaced them with common sense."

"Under the new regulations now in effect, a plant-based meat alternative won’t be considered “mislabeled” if it uses an adjective like 'meatless,' 'plant-based,' or 'vegan,” on its labeling. Previously, meatless marketers could risk fines of up to $1,000 “per offense,” even jail time. "

"Claiming Mississippi’s law violates the First Amendment, the Institute for Justice sued the state in July on behalf of Upton’s Naturals, a Chicago-based vegan food business, and the Plant Based Food Association. Without the lawsuit, plant-based businesses would have faced severe financial consequences. In order to operate legally, Upton’s Naturals would have had to pull out of Mississippi entirely or drastically overhaul its packaging and design. "

"Not only would the latter be enormously expensive and time-consuming (especially if they’d be used in just one state), the new labels would have created confusion where none existed before. Instead of widely understood terms like 'veggie burgers' or 'vegan sausages,' plant-based companies would have been forced to use unwieldy (and frankly, unappetizing) alternatives like veggie 'discs' or vegetable 'protein tubes.' "

"Federal and state laws already bar deceptive or misleading advertising. If consumers understand that buffalo wings aren’t from flying bison and that chickens don’t have fingers, they can surely grasp that a “veggie burger” is made from plants. In reality, Arkansas and Mississippi are only protecting established businesses from competition. "