It has to do with the understanding of the common consumer since they're who we're protecting here. Go ask most consumers what 'meat' means and they'll tell you (something like) it's the flesh of an animal. Ask them what 'beef' is and they'll tell you it's the flesh of a cow. Ask them what a 'hotdog' is and no one is going to tell you it's the flesh of a dog. The goal here is to make sure consumers know what it is they're buying. If I go to the store, am idly shopping and pick up something that looks like this [1] in the meat section and then get home and open it up and cook it and it's actually this [2] I'm going to feel taken. And rightfully so.

[1] https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/59e9d405-24bb-431a-b98b-98d...

[2] https://images.wsj.net/im-13668?width=1260&aspect_ratio=1.5

>Ask them what a 'hotdog' is and no one is going to tell you it's the flesh of a dog. The goal here is to make sure consumers know what it is they're buying.

Ahh so this will clear up the contents of what is in hotdog(and other processed meats) and allow me to not be bamboozled into eating fake meat.

Protecting lazy and inattentive shoppers from accidentally buying a plant based product is sufficient reason for heavy handed regulation?

This is a non problem being trumped up by an industry that wants to use regulatory capture to make its competitors products less attractive and visible.

> Protecting lazy and inattentive shoppers from accidentally buying a plant based product is sufficient reason for heavy handed regulation?

Where do you draw the line for what deceptive labeling is allowed and what isn't? How many of the other existing food labeling regulations should we throw out?

What if I label my package to look _very_ similar to a meat product, but put the words "not real meat" in size 8 font on the bottom of the package, is that acceptable?

> What if I label my package to look _very_ similar to a meat product, but put the words "not real meat"

Then I think you'd have a complaint under existing laws, rather than trying to make a mountain out of a mole-hill. The same would be true in reverse, if a product claimed prominently to be tofu based but contained meat.

I think it's very, very telling that part of the desired result for the meat industry is to prevent these products from sharing shelf space.

> I think it's very, very telling that part of the desired result for the meat industry is to prevent these products from sharing shelf space.

I think that's fair. We already have a healthy set of regulatory requirements around product labeling, and I'm not really opposed to tweaking the labeling requirements around meat vs non-meat products. Regulating shelf-space does seem to be crossing an unnecessary line.

And if non-Kosher food tried to get put in the Kosher food section and went under brands such as Beyond Kosher?

Any kind of fraud can be blamed on "lazy and inattentive shoppers", so it's just a question of where do we draw the line.

If you ask a vegan of what types of 'meat' you can get in a grocery store they will have a more nuanced answer though.

Nor are they hot, until you heat them.