The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association has come out in support of an EU wide ban on vegan products using names which are traditionally derived from meat. 

Much to the consternation of farmers, in recent years, demand for so-called ‘vegan sausages’ and ‘vegan burgers’ has surged, fuelled by ever larger numbers of people switching to a plant based diet. 

French MEP Céline Imart has vowed to bring an amendment to EU legislation which would see such words banned from advertising. 

It is something many farmers would like to see happen and Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association President Denis Drennan said there is “huge support” for the move across Europe. 

“Czechia, Austria, Hungary, Ireland, France, Luxembourg - it’s all over the place,” he explained to The Pat Kenny Show. 

“It’s something similar to [when we had] oat milk, we had almond milk and we had soya milk; a regulation was brought in so that you couldn’t actually call any of these [things milk].

“It’s now oat juice or almond; milk is something produced by animals through their mammary glands and I don’t see it on oats or almonds.” 

A herd of pigs in farmyard. Image: Deyana Robova / Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Drennan complained that he was horrified that so many multinational companies are "hijacking what people have understood for centuries”. 

“A burger is something made from minced meat and maybe salt and pepper between two buns,” he said. 

“A sausage is made from ground up pork.” 

A herd of cows in the West of Ireland. Image: BartKowski / Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Drennan said he had “no issue” with people switching to veganism but wants the language of the food they buy to be accurate. 

“That’s absolutely fine,” he said. 

“But do these companies have to hijack the established names of food products that we have come to know and love for centuries?”

He added that he feared some might not even be aware they are not eating meat. 

“If somebody has a bad experience eating one of these products that are not what the perception is that they are going to be, they blame a bad experience on eating sausages - when it’s not actually sausages,” he said. 

“There has to be some respect for interpretation of the works and the meaning of the words.”

Main image: Veggie sausages with kale and onion. Picture by: Alamy.