The proposal by the EU to reserve names such as burgers and sausages only for products that contain meat is absurd (So long veggie burger. Hello to the ‘veggie disc’ and fries, 5 April). Does the meat industry hold consumers in such contempt that they believe someone would buy a veggie burger thinking it contains meat?

There is a great irony in the notion that vegan products are misleading. Let’s start with the names the meat industry gives its products: bacon, rather than dead pig; beef, rather than dead cow flesh; milk, rather than bovine mammary secretion. If those involved in this proposal think sticking the word veggie in front of the word burger is misleading, surely it is genuinely misleading to redefine what a product actually is.

The rise of plant-based eating is worth celebrating – earlier this year, it was reported that one in six new product launches were plant-based. Veganism and plant-based eating will continue to grow, because it is better for animals and the planet, and can offer health benefits too. Now pass me a vegan sausage roll!

Tod Bradbury

Campaign manager, Animal Aid

• Pandering to the reluctance of nouveau végétariennes to let go of their attachment to carnivorous associations in food is not new. In the mid-1960s I used to visit the renowned vegetarian restaurant Shearn’s, in Tottenham Court Road, London, for lunch. Shortly before Christmas, it was offering ready-to-cook nut roasts moulded in the shape of a chicken.

For a lifelong vegetarian, the news that the EU is to consider banning the nonsensical use of names such as burger, escalope and sausage for vegetarian imitations is a cause for celebration – perhaps with a glass of champagne, produced in the eponymous region according to the appellation d’origine contrôlée.

Roger Newman Turner

Weymouth, Dorset

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