Urging DOJ to Eliminate Unnecessary and Burdensome Labeling Laws

On September 15, 2025, The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) filed comments with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) urging the agency to eliminate state-level marketing and labeling laws that either ban plant-based products from using meat terminology in their names or impose additional unnecessary and burdensome labeling requirements on the industry.

Plant-based foods currently use truthful, non-misleading, and federally compliant naming conventions in their marketing and labeling. Yet state laws recently began imposing labeling requirements that are impractical to consumers, small businesses, as well as interstate commerce. In accordance with congressionally established uniform nationwide labeling requirements and longstanding FDA law, the comments argue that the DOJ should “alleviate the unnecessary regulatory burdens placed on the American people” created by state labeling laws that undermine nationwide uniform labeling requirements for plant-based food products. These labeling laws adversely affect interstate commerce and business activities throughout the U.S.

All food product labels regulated by FDA must carry a product name, or “statement of identity,” which may be the common or usual name of a product. FDA sets forth the size, font, and placement of this product name as it should appear on labels. FDA also requires that this product name “accurately identify or describe, in as simple and direct terms as possible, the basic nature of the food or its characterizing properties or ingredients.” Common usage determines the “common or usual name” of a product. Terms like “veggie burger” and “vegan sausage” are the common or usual names of plant-based meat products because empirical evidence confirms those are the names most often used and best understood by consumers. In every case challenging state plant-based labeling laws, states have been unable to identify a single consumer complaint or any evidence that a single consumer has been misled into believing a vegan meat product was an animal-based meat product. What’s more, ample empirical evidence confirms that consumers are not misled.

There are currently nine states enacting vastly different marketing and labeling requirements for plant-based producers. Complying with the various state labeling laws targeting plant-based foods may prevent plant-based meat producers from being able to follow federal labeling law. If states are allowed to enforce differing front-of-package labeling standards, it may become not just impracticable but impossible for plant-based meat companies to comply with labeling laws in different states. Plant based meat producers would have to cease their operations completely if they had to keep certain product labels out of certain states’ stores or anywhere online where a certain state’s citizens may shop. These laws can act to destroy an entire industry and constitute a grave burden on interstate commerce.

What action has been taken? ALDF submitted comments with the DOJ urging the agency to eliminate state-level marketing and labeling laws that either ban plant-based products from using meat terminology in their names or impose additional unnecessary and burdensome labeling requirements on the industry.

Why this proposed rule is important: The Animal Legal Defense Fund has been at the forefront of demanding fair oversight of plant-based foods, in the face of aggressive lobbying by factory farming interests — which have attempted to strongarm state and federal lawmakers, and regulatory agencies, into prohibiting plant-based products from using commonly understood terms in their marketing, labeling and packaging.

The plant-based meat industry is at a grave disadvantage if they are forced to abide by differing state labeling guidelines instead of federal requirements. Plant-based meat producers do not sell their products directly to consumers. For these producers, the supply chain system can only operate as an interstate model because plant-based foods are not sold and distributed on a state-by-state basis but are sold to retail store chains, which have locations nationwide, and are then distributed by the geographic region of the country. Retailers do not have a system to warehouse plant-based products with certain labels only for stores in a given state. Unless the label for a plant-based product can be distributed nationwide, both distributors and retailers will not accept that product for distribution, which would leave plant-based meat producers unable to participate in the market to sell their products.