Algae related regulation & legislation

Under the provisional agreement, 31 specific meat-related terms will be banned from use on labels and in marketing materials for plant-based and vegan products. The restricted list covers two main categories: animal-species names (such as beef, veal, pork, poultry, chicken, turkey, duck, goose, lamb, mutton, ovine and goat) and meat-cut terminology (including steak, bacon, breast, thigh, drumstick, loin, ribs, T-bone, ribeye, sirloin, tenderloin, rump, shank, shoulder, chop, wing, brisket, flank and liver).

format-based product names – such as burger, sausage, nuggets and escalope – remain permitted, provided the product is clearly labelled as plant-based or vegan. This means that terms such as “veggie burger”, “plant-based sausage”, or “vegan nuggets” can continue to be used on packaging and in advertising. The compromise reflects the co-legislators' view that while animal species and meat-cut names should be protected for products of animal origin, generic product-format names that describe a shape or eating occasion, rather than an animal source, do not mislead consumers.

The agreement also introduces a formal definition of “meat” as “edible parts of animals” and extends naming restrictions pre-emptively to novel foods produced through cellular agriculture (so-called “lab-grown” or “cell-cultured” meat), even though such products are not yet commercially available on the EU market.

The trilogue agreement of 5 March 2026 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission is a provisional agreement to restrict the use of certain meat-related names on plant-based and cell-cultured food products. The deal is part of a broader revision of the Common Market Organisation (CMO). So far, this is a provisional political deal, not yet final law, awaiting adoption by the Agriculture and Fisheries Council and a final vote in the European Parliament plenary. Once formally adopted and published, the new rules will enter into force. Most likely producers will then have a three-year transition period, during which they may continue to sell products bearing existing packaging and gradually adapt their labels and branding to comply with the new requirements.

Many algal products or extracts are targeted for use in meat-replacement products. There are also algal products targeted as a replacement for the Bovine Fetal Serum, which is an almost essential requirement for cell-cultured meat products.