German Politician Seeks Ban On Vegetarian Sausage

A German politician who finds the very concept of vegetarian sausages unsettling is calling for a ban on the word "sausage" being applied to food items that do not actually contain meat.

According to The Independent, German agriculture minister Christian Schmidt is calling for the EU to ban product names like "vegetarian sausage" and "vegetarian meatball" on the grounds that they are confusing to consumers who might think the items contain meat, even though they say "vegetarian" right on the package. As precedent, he points out that EU rules do not allow dairy-free products to be called "milk" and "cheese" even if they are designed to be similar to those items.

Schmidt asserts that packages that say things like "vegetarian sausage" might confuse people, and thus they should be more clear and not allow meatless products to go around calling themselves sausages. When some snarky interviewer asked if this rule should also apply to beefsteak tomatoes, Schmidt said that was not necessary because there was not "consumer confusion" about that.