• The Council of State on Wednesday urgently validated the request of an association against a decree which was to ban on October 1st names such as "steak" or "bacon" for products based on vegetable proteins.

  • Defenders of vegetable protein products, such as the organization Protéines France, which defends manufacturers in the vegetable protein sector (Herta, Happyvore, etc.), have therefore gained some time and will be able to use the words steak , sausage, caviar, dumplings or carpaccio to name their vegetable products.

  • But, ultimately, what is a steak?

    20 Minutes

    asked the question to Laurence Brunet-Hunault, lecturer in linguistics and semiology.

Blue, rare or medium?

Steak can be eaten in many ways, even without meat at all.

Producers of steak or other sausages, carpaccio, meatballs, based on vegetable proteins will be able to keep this name after the suspension, Thursday, of the decree obliging them to abandon these terms related to meat by the Council of State.

By suspending this decree, demanded for a long time by the interprofessional meat and livestock associations, the administrative jurisdiction is following the European position, which authorizes the use of terms of animal origin, except for milk-based products. .

But, ultimately, what is a “steak”?

And can we really talk about “vegetable steak”?

Elements of response with Laurence Brunet-Hunault, lecturer in linguistics and semiology at the University of La Rochelle.

Steak, sausages or carpaccio, is it “good meat”?

This is one of the arguments claimed by the lawyer for the organization Protéines France, who filed an interim suspension against the government decree last Friday.

“The Council of State accepted our plea based on the impossibility for vegetable foodstuffs to leave the lexical field which comes close or far from meat”, welcomed Maître Guillaume Hannotin.

And according to him, some names originally had no connection with meat, such as "steak", which means "slice" in English, or "carpaccio", named after the Italian painter who made red prevail in his paintings.

According to Laurence Brunet-Hunault, if "steak" comes from the English of "slice", in France "steak, in the linguistic definition, is indeed meat, it is a slice of beef grilled or to be grilled ".

And even if we can hear the expression “tuna steak”, we must not forget that we find there “animal protein and that, theoretically, we should not call it steak either”, abounds the linguist .

The same goes for sausage, which “is a preparation made from pork, veal or beef, contained in an elongated casing”.

As far as carpaccio is concerned, although its name is inspired by an Italian painter attached to the color red, Laurence Brunet-Hunault remains firm: "It's a recipe invented by an Italian cook made from slices of very fine”.

But she agrees that the problem is a little more complicated since today, the recipe has evolved and we find carpaccios of seafood, fish and even fruit.

But then can we say “vegetable steak”?

Etymologically, the question then arises for vegetable steaks.

It has the shape and appearance of a red meat burger, but it has neither the taste nor the basic ingredients.

“It can be misleading”, then intervenes the lecturer, who wonders: “What are we putting forward in the end?

It's a packaging game, we've been used to eating meat”... so it seems easier to use this name to sell the product.

This legal battle is a "fight between two opposing camps: the one who defends cattle breeding and the one who opposes it because of the pollution it generates", she summarizes.

But ultimately, “we could rather invent another word than steak, like galette for example”, then suggests Laurence Brunet-Hunault.

Is it so important to stick to the basic definition?

A new word, to designate another product, otherwise, we can get lost.

For the specialist who quotes

1984

by George Orwell, “if everything is called steak, what are we talking about at the end?

".

"Yes it has the shape of a steak, but the words have a meaning even if the language evolves", she adds, insisting on "the importance of being able to identify things, and all the more so in food" .

And to remember the previous debates around Roquefort, Gruyère and other products subject to a protected designation of origin.

“When I buy a product on which it is written Roquefort, I hear eating Roquefort, illustrates Laurence Brunet-Hunault.

It's important to know what you're eating, and renaming plant-based steak can also help people who eat it better understand what they're eating.

» 

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The Council of State grants a reprieve to the designation "steak" for vegetable products

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