Innovative Foods with Transparent Labels that Will Have the Next Pandemic for Breakfast

Abstract

Continued factory farming makes a new viral pandemic ineluctable. Plant-based and cell-cultured food (together “innovative food”) producers use animal-based food names to signal a similar function, use, and taste, but without the negative externalities of the animal-based foods in regard to health, sustainability and ethicality. In the US and EU, the market share of animal-based products is shrinking. The animal-based food producers in the US have insisted on “Truth in Labeling” measures to exclude innovative foods from using animal-based food names, even though empirical research demonstrates that it does not lead to consumer confusion. The European Parliament has approved Amendment 171 to Regulation (EU) No. 1308/2013 to extend the dairy ban, even though it conflicts with the policy goals in the Farm to Fork Strategy to transition to a system of health, sustainability, clear information, and the implied goal of ethicality.

Keywords: plant-based food, cell-cultured food, transparency in labels, health, sustainability, ethicality

JEL Classification: I18, I31, K00, K30, K32, Q01, Q12, Q16, Q18, Q20, Q21, Q22, Q28, Q53, Q54, Q56, Q40