Pubco’s vegan burger breaches EU proposal to ban name
With veggie burgers looking set for the chop, the Dodo Pub Co, which has pubs in Oxford and Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, have introduced a new vegan burger after a “huge consumer demand”.
The demand comes after its monthly vegan and vegetarian specials, including the 'Tofu or Not Tofu' burger, sold out during Veganuary.
Popular demand
Founding member of the pub company Leo Johnson said the veggie burger, marketed as ‘#leafnotbeef’, has been a “long time coming”.
“It has been a long time coming mainly because we refuse to serve something that doesn’t taste amazing and can sit proudly with its burger brethren within the menu,” said an elated Johnson.
“We genuinely believe that the burger will become as popular, if not more so than our Mushroom Man, and we know that there’d be riots if we ever took that off the menu.”
Priced at £10 per patty, the new addition has become a permanent member of the burger family and will sit alongside other well-known vegan and vegetarian dishes such as the Mushroom Man burger, Simply Red pizza, Mighty Veggie brekkie and Chilli Avo’ Smash.
The plant-based alternative is said to be a “revolutionary” protein-packed burger that is filled full with vitamins and rich with coconut oil – claimed to be an antioxidant – to create a succulent consistency more normal associated with its meat equivalent.
Johnson concluded that the addition of beetroot brings a pink, juicy ‘bleed’ at the centre of the combination of mushroom and plant protein which, ironically, provides a texture similar to the bite of meat.
Vegan crackdown
But could the pubco be soon forced to change the name of its new addition?
In a bizarre food-labelling crackdown, the European parliament’s agriculture committee voted to approve a ban of vegetarian and vegan food products carrying the same names as their meat-based alternatives.
On the topic of the proposed name change, The Vegan Society slammed the idea and labelled the idea “unreasonable and costly”, which threatens to cause “widespread administrative chaos”.
It added the measures would not only affect vegans but also “prove costly” for public authorities that currently serve vegan food.
If the proposal is voted into effect next month, vegan and veggie burgers are planned to be named ‘discos’ and non-meat sausages will be known as ‘tubes’.
