The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that only dairy products of animal origin can be labelled as milk and cheese, not vegetable substitutes made from soya and tofu.The Court (Seventh Chamber) hereby rules:
“Article 78(2) and Annex VII, Part III to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 922/72, (EEC) No 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001 and (EC) No 1234/2007 must be interpreted as precluding the term ‘milk’ and the designations reserved by that regulation exclusively for milk products from being used to designate a purely plant based product in marketing or advertising, even if those terms are expanded upon by clarifying or descriptive terms indicating the plant origin of the product at issue, unless that product is listed in Annex I to Commission Decision 2010/791/EU of 20 December 2010 listing the products referred to in the second subparagraph of point III(1) of Annex XII to Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007.”
This decision comes after a German company that markets and distributes vegetarian and vegan foods has been accused of misleading advertising by an association to combat unfair competition.

Our Labeling and Regulatory Division can support every company who needs support to align with the new rules.

Source: European Court of Justice