# Does ‘plant based’ have a legal(ish) definition, in the food industry?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 29, 2021, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729 "2021-01-29T00:28:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/1 "2021-01-29T00:28:13Z")
Or is just a regular descriptor, like ‘New’, ‘Healthy’?
Kraft slices were once labelled cheese, (Cheese makers objected, no live bacteria at the end product! And won!), now they are ‘cheese food product’.
Why not ‘all plant’, or ‘all vegetable’? Possibly because it’s not really either of those?
So…what is it? Anywhere to look and find out what specifically, gets called ‘plant based’?
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/2 "2021-01-29T01:03:03Z")
I’m guessing that “plant based” is more appealing than “vegan.”
Otherwise, it’s probably as easy to define (ahem) as “gourmet” or “artisanal.”
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/3 "2021-01-29T11:50:24Z")
But if a product is labeled as “plant based”, and it turns out that it uses, say, animal-derived gelatin, or lac, or whatever, are they in any legal trouble?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/4 "2021-01-29T13:12:52Z")
‘Plant-based’ may _imply_ ‘no animal products’, but without some regulated definition, it’s semantically iffy. ‘Wheat-based’ baked goods, for example, may contain a whole load of other ingredients besides wheat, without violating the notion that they are _based on_ wheat.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/5 "2021-01-29T13:16:46Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#):
>
> I’m guessing that “plant based” is more appealing than “vegan.”
I think so. I recently discussed this with a manufacturer of vegetarian products - of which some where also vegan; they were reluctant to use the term ‘vegan’ prominently on their labelling; their explanation was:
> research has shown that tagging products ‘vegan’ loudly sometimes turns those away who are trying to reduce their meat intake but don’t strictly consider themselves as vegan
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### Author:  [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/6 "2021-01-29T13:58:19Z")
I’ve been out of the food business for a while, so I may not be up to date on the rules. In the US, there are standards of identity for a number of foods, such as cheese, peanut butter, butter, margarine, ice cream, etc. To be labeled as one of these products, they must meet the standard of identity. For peanut butter, it is something like: at least 90% roasted peanuts, sweetener of either sugar or honey, salt, and may have stabilizer (usually partially hydrogenated oil).
I am unaware of a standard for “plant based,” but advertising claims must be supportable. You can’t claim that a food improves your sex life unless you have data to prove it. There are rules for “organic” but I have never worked in that area so I don’t know what they are.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/7 "2021-01-29T16:17:13Z")
One thing to note: it definitely isn’t any kind of scientific description, because some of these ‘plant based’ products are actually made from fungi or cultured yeasts or bacteria, none of which are plants.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/8 "2021-01-29T16:27:52Z")
This 2019 article suggests that the FDA, which would be the agency that would be responsible for regulate a claim such as “plant-based” in the U.S., doesn’t currently have a standard or regulation around the term itself; most of their regulation related to plant-based foods is around whether such foods can use terms that are usually associated with animal-based foods, like “meat” or “milk.”
That said, the article also notes, “the FDA does not stand idly by when a product is labeled in a manner that poses consumer confusion concerns.”
> **[What’s in a Name? The Plant-Based Foods Labeling Debate | White Papers |...](https://www.foley.com/en/insights/publications/2019/10/whats-in-a-name-plant-based-foods-labeling-debate)**
>
> Meatless meat is going mainstream. Fueled by sustainability concerns and an uptick in capital, food tech start-ups have been hard at work crafting new methods of producing plant-based proteins.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/9 "2021-01-29T17:34:48Z")
Is it really true that cheese must contain bacteria? I used to make a mozzarella by heating milk to 88 F, adding a rennet substitute, heating till it all coagulates and then subjecting it to further heating and straining. Assuming the milk I used was pasteurized, there were no bacteria present.
I always thought that cheese product meant they had ground it up and then glued it together somehow. Velveeta was the paradigm example.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/10 "2021-01-29T17:48:47Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> I always thought that cheese product meant they had ground it up and then glued it together somehow. Velveeta was the paradigm example.
Pretty much. A “cheese food” (or a “processed cheese”) contains cheese and other stuff, and/or has been subjected to additional processing steps after the cheese itself has been made. Exact wording of the term depends on how much actual cheese it contains.
> [@](#):
>
> The FDA actually has a handy little guide for determining how much or how little cheese is in your “cheese products.” Here’s how to decode the label:
>
> - **Pasteurized process cheese** = contains 100% cheese
> - **Pasteurized process cheese food** = contains at least 51% cheese
> - **Pasteurized process cheese product** = contains less than 51% cheese
>
> So why are companies giving us fake cheese? In short, to save time and money. Manufacturers will take out some of the milk that comes naturally with cheese production and replace it with processed milk protein concentrate or whey protein concentrate. The result of these hybrid cheeses is a longer shelf life, easier cooking use (i.e. how perfectly sticky the cheese gets between the burger and bun at McDonald’s), as well as a uniform look that consumers are familiar with and begin to expect—perfectly square, perfectly orange, perfectly fake cheese.
> **[Your Favorite Cheese Might Not Actually Be Cheese At All](https://www.delish.com/food-news/a46872/your-favorite-cheese-might-not-be-real/)**
>
> Brb, crying over our grilled cheese.
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### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/11 "2021-01-29T17:59:54Z")
I’m suspicious of ‘plant based’, as all vegetable or vegetarian would seem easy enough terms to describe what the consumer thinks they’re getting.
Whereas plant based, sounds like a lawyerly term for something perhaps on the ragged fringes of qualifying as either, all vegetable or vegetarian.
(Also plenty of bacteria in pasteurized milk, hence the development of mould! Whereas Kraft cheese food product does NOT mould. It turns into an oily semi plastic like thing!)
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/12 "2021-01-29T18:02:29Z")
> [@elbows](#):
>
> I’m suspicious of ‘plant based’, as all vegetable or vegetarian would seem easy enough terms to describe what the consumer thinks they’re getting. -
If you really want to stretch it, beef is “plant-based”.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2021, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/13 "2021-01-29T21:21:09Z")
> [@elbows](#):
>
> (Also plenty of bacteria in pasteurized milk, hence the development of mould! Whereas Kraft cheese food product does NOT mould. It turns into an oily semi plastic like thing!)
Bacteria doesn’t lead to mold. Mold leads to mold. And just because something eventually gets moldy doesn’t mean the mold was already there when you bought it.
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### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2021, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/14 "2021-01-30T00:26:59Z")
Sorry, I didn’t say or mean to imply that I thought they came with mould in them.
More pointing out, Kraft cheese, unlike say milk or real cheese, will NOT mould.
Sorry I was unclear.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2021, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-plant-based-have-a-legal-ish-definition-in-the-food-industry/931729/15 "2021-01-30T14:07:03Z")
> [@elbows](#):
>
> It turns into an oily semi plastic like thing!
Not trying to pile on, but I think the error in this sentence is the “turns into” part, not the part that the esteemed @Chronos objected to.
IMO Kraft singles(R)™ _starts out_ as an oily semi plastic like thing! 😉