Veganburger vs Vegaworst Funny How EU Consumers Know The Difference

Let’s call it like it is, when almost 21,000 Dutch consumers were asked whether terms like vegaworst or veganburger were confusing, a thumping 96% knew exactly what they meant. That alone pulls the rug out from under claims EU shoppers can’t tell a plant-based sausage from an animal one. The data couldn’t be clearer, consumers aren’t confused, regulators are.

Nearly three in four Dutch shoppers actively prefer the term veganburger over the bland, bureaucratic plantaardige schijf (plant-based disc). People buy familiarity and format. They want their plant-based products to feel intuitive, not like a committee-approved mystery puck. The EU’s push to ban “meaty” names isn’t protecting consumers, it’s protecting an old narrative already drifted well past its expiry date.

What this Dutch survey really signals is a cultural shift - everyday shoppers are rewriting the protein lexicon faster than policymakers can keep up. People know what’s vegan. People know what’s meat. And people know exactly what they want to buy. Trying to rename a vegan sausage into something sterile is like renaming coffee a “roasted bean infusion beverage”, technically correct, commercially ridiculous. Feels very much like a meat industry campaign to emasculate anything resembling 'meat'.

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