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This followed the agriculture department’s recent decision to instruct the Food Safety Agency to seize meat “analogues” that used “product names prescribed and reserved for processed meat products”.
Confiscations were scheduled to commence on 22 August. The Food Safety Agency reaffirmed its commitment to “seize any meat analogue products presented for sale” in South Africa, “which are using the product names prescribed for processed meat products” in a notice published in the week of 22 July.
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Donovan Will, ProVeg South Africa country director, said in a statement the action on behalf of the plant-based food industry was supported by local food awareness organisations, as well as several stakeholders in the industry.
“Although we welcome the decision by the court, we need further dialogue. The matter should be settled through dialogue between the plant-based food industry, [the department], and the meat industry,” he said.
The decision to confiscate plant-based meat alternatives followed an earlier decision by the agriculture department that plant-based alternatives to animal protein products could not be marketed with any reference to meat, dairy or eggs.
At the time, Dr Koos Coetzee, independent agricultural economist, said the instructions were a very positive development for the animal farming sector.
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According to him, while it remained the consumer’s choice to buy a product, correct labelling and marketing were paramount. A plant-based product that did not contain meat, for example, should not be marketed as “meat-like” or “meaty”, he said.
Meanwhile, Arleen Nel, ProVeg South Africa’s communications manager, told Farmer’s Weekly that the matter could only be resolved through industry-wide discussions, the drafting of new and appropriate regulations, and the agriculture department reconsidering its decision pertaining to plant-based food products.
