The Chilean Agriculture Commission has approved the project that regulates the categorization of the concept “meat”, with which it seeks to prohibit cataloging under that name an edible product that is not of animal origin. This is how the Eurocarne header has been echoed. The Commission’s document includes in the background and fundamentals section that, historically, meat has been one of the main foods consumed by people around the world, moreover, before the communities knew and applied the techniques of agriculture, hunting and gathering were the means used for families to receive the necessary nutrients for their subsistence”.
The Commission document states that despite the fact that “attempts have been made to regulate the meat market in all its stages and attempts have been made to establish an exact definition of what we should understand by meat, however, products that not being of animal origin, are called meat and are sold as such in our market”.
Damage to the industry
Given that this situation has caused serious damage to the Chilean meat industry, the Agricultural and Livestock Society of Osorno (SAGO) has indicated that “we believe that this constitutes a deception to the consumer because, when one speaks of meat, one is implying a series of attributes, generally accepted by the population as beneficial, because it is a very complete food and it should not be attributed to a product that, by law, is not meat”.
The norm establishes as denomination of “meat” the edible part of the muscles of slaughter animals such as cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, goats, camelids and other species suitable for human consumption.
