Durban - Government’s beef with the vegan and vegetarian food industry has left manufacturers of plant-based meat substitutes fearing that they could be forced to close down without any warning.
As a result, ProVeg South Africa and 53 other stakeholders have formed a working group to deal with issues and find legal representation.
“Our fight is not with the meat industry and it's not with the department. It is simply that we want to be involved in drawing up new legislation,” ProVeg spokesperson Arleen Nel said.
At the end of June, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development banned the use of any meat-related terms on vegan and vegetarian products.
It said meat-related terms like boerewors, prawns, vegan biltong, chorizo, viennas and chicken-style could only be used by the meat industry and not on the packaging of plant-based foods because it was misleading.
Nel said they were warned that businesses in the plant food industry had 30 days to change its labelling, failing which the Department’s Food Safety Agency would remove the affected products from retail stores.
“Next, the plant-based egg sector and then the plant-based milk industry, will be affected,” said Nel.
She said already “Just Eggs”, a plant-based egg substitute, had been removed from the shelves.
Further action by the department could lead to the closure of many businesses and a rise in unemployment in the industry which was still growing.
In its communication with the plant-based industry in April, the department said it had published new regulations regarding the classification, packaging and marking of processed meat products intended for sale in South Africa.
However, the regulations “excluded meat analogues or non-meat-based products that in general appearance, presentation and intended use correspond to processed meat products (eg vegan or vegetarian type processed products)”.
It said the reason for this was that at the time the regulations were drafted in 2019, the vegan/vegetarian industry had a small market share and only targeted niche markets.
However, since then there has been a huge increase in the local manufacturing, import and sale of meat analogues or non-meat based products.
“Over the past two years, this office has received numerous complaints from processed meat products manufacturers and other stakeholders regarding the use of processed meat product names as descriptors for meat analogues or non-meat based products,” it said in a letter.
However, Nel said the various letters left them confused, because in April the department reached out to them to ask if they were interested in drafting new regulations. Then, in June, the department issued a communique that gave them 30 days to change their labelling.
Nel said there was no regulation for their “new industry” which had grown exponentially over the past three years.
“For a lot of the companies, taking their products back from retailers and then repackaging them will lead to spoilt products. It will be very costly and will sink a lot of businesses,” she said.
A manufacturer of vegan meat products based in Gauteng said most of the companies in their industry were small, family owned businesses. Recalling, reprinting, repackaging and then redistributing would be costly and lead to their closure.
He said South Africa’s new labelling regulations meant that they would need separate packaging strategies, one for local markets and one for the international market.
“After the flooding and looting in this country, many businesses are struggling to remain afloat and so the government should give us more time.”
He said the meat industry also misled consumers by adding soya to meat sausages to add bulk and cut down on costs.
“We are here to do a service. As a vegan or vegetarian you don't get into this industry to make money. It’s a higher calling,” he said.
The Independent on Saturday