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“Vegan meat shop” opens in Dresden – and now has to rename various products
Looks like meat, but is animal-free: products from the “Fleischerei” in Dresden
© Sebastian Kahnert / DPA
Vegan and butchery – isn’t that completely contradictory? Not for a newly opened shop in Saxony: There is not a single product made from animal meat to buy in the “vegan butcher shop”. But that caused trouble for the business.
More and more people are interested in vegan and vegetarian diets. What they often find difficult: Saying goodbye to their habits of steak, schnitzel and sausages. Even meat eaters who want to try the meatless diet first often find it difficult to switch to foods that look and taste completely different.
In Saxony, it was therefore clear to three founders: A “vegan butcher’s shop” was needed – i.e. a butcher’s shop that offered the usual products, but without any animal basis. The opening of the store had already caused a stir and protests at the beginning of the year. Co-founder Nils Steiger had to delete hundreds of hate mails after just a few days – the friendliest recommended renaming the shop “flower shop” or “vegetable shop”.
Steiger and his team in the store.
© DPA
Not entirely surprising for Steiger: “Of course we could have written butcher’s shop with a V. On the one hand, that was a deliberate provocation, and on the other, it’s exactly what we want to be: a butcher’s shop,” says Steiger. However, Steiger and his co-founder are now expecting trouble from another side – the authorities.
The employees of the food control did not like the fact that the products in the “vegan butchery” are reminiscent of animal products across the board. According to the EU, there are clear rules for naming foods. And they say: Consumers should be able to “make a qualified choice” when shopping and not be deceived about the “properties of vegan and vegetarian foods”.
Products from the “vegan butcher shop”
It doesn’t matter whether the average consumer in a shop called “vegan meat shop” actually expects a beef product when he sees salami. And so the butcher shop now has to rename twelve products in its range. But she is very creative: “Sülze” becomes “Gesülze”, the “Heringshäckerle” becomes “Häckerle”, the French cheese “Maroilles” becomes “Mario”, the “Tunfisch” becomes “Unvisch” and the “Leberwurst” to the “big one”.
Of course, there are exceptions to the regulations, as is typical for the EU: The “Leberkäse” can keep its name, since the original product consists of neither liver nor cheese. For Steiger it is clear anyway: “If a customer wants to buy something that tastes like a salami, has a texture like a salami and looks like a salami, then it makes sense for me to call the product “vegan salami”. “.
Sources: dpa t-online.de, sächsische.de