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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday December 14 2019, @04:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the slow-roasting-grills-of-justice dept.

A federal judge on Tuesday roasted Arkansas' law banning makers of meatless meat products from using words such as "burger," "sausage," "roast," and "meat" in their labeling.
[...] Judge Kristine Baker, of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, granted a preliminary injunction that prevents the state from enforcing the law while the legal case is ongoing. In her order, Judge Baker made clear that the law appears to violate the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment—as Tofurky argued. She determined that the state will likely lose the case.
[...] "The State argues that Tofurky's labels for its plant-based products are inherently misleading because they use the names and descriptors of traditional meat items but do not actually include the product they invoke, including terms like 'chorizo,' 'hot dogs,' 'sausage,' and 'ham roast,'" Judge Baker noted. Such misleading or false labels would not be protected commercial speech under the First Amendment, the state claimed.

But Judge Baker essentially called that argument bologna.
[...] She went on to cite a ruling in a similar case that determined that "Under Plaintiffs' logic, a reasonable consumer might also believe that veggie bacon contains pork, that flourless chocolate cake contains flour, or that e-books are made out of paper."

"That assumption is unwarranted," she went on. "The labels in the record evidence include ample terminology to indicate the vegan or vegetarian nature of the products."
[...] Meat and dairy industry groups have been increasingly working to try to limit the use of terms like "milk" and "meat" in other states and contexts as meatless and diary-free products continue to grow in popularity. Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Dakota have similar anti-veggie-meat labeling laws. In Wisconsin, lawmakers have considered banning non-dairy products from using the word "milk," such as beverages labeled almond milk.

The latter issue led former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb to quip last year that "You know, an almond doesn't lactate." He said that the Food and Drug Administration is working on a guidance for the use of the term.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/12/judge-serves-up-sizzling-rebuke-of-arkansas-anti-veggie-meat-labeling-law/
Previous Stories:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/12/04/1425220
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/07/07/1443201
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/02/26/2315236


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  • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday December 15 2019, @03:55AM (3 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Sunday December 15 2019, @03:55AM (#932275) Journal

    Almond milk is a fraud. One almond in a carton is not "almond milk". Same as you can't call ice milk ice cream. Not enough milk fat content.

    BTW - milk doesn't only come from cows. Try goat milk - it's quite tasty. And it still qualifies as milk because it's produced from mammals, not plants.

    And I didn't "propose" a rule for juice - it's the actual law. Must be real fruit juice or it can't be called fruit juice - hence the labelling "fruit drink". AKA flavoured sugar water.

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  • (Score: 2) by dry on Sunday December 15 2019, @04:54AM (2 children)

    by dry (223) on Sunday December 15 2019, @04:54AM (#932293) Journal

    Yes, it does sound like almond milk is a fraud, though the American courts refused an injunction based on false advertising. Sadly it seems pretty popular despite the low amount of protein, I guess people think it is a nut.
    Seems almond milk dates from the 12th century, and in English, the word milk has also referred to plant based milks since about the same time, with almond milk being popular during religious fasts.
    I don't really like any animal milk, cows milk doesn't agree, goats is too gamey, at least what I have had. Have had cheeses from various animals, camel, water buffalo, sheep, goat and cow at least, they're all good if aged. Never tried pigeon milk.
    As for the fruit juice law, seems we need similar for almond milk along with a warning that it is not suitable for infants.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 15 2019, @08:51AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 15 2019, @08:51AM (#932331)

      Never tried pigeon milk.

      There is a reason for that. Involves mammilaries. Look them up, but do not look at them, directly, too much.