TWeaK

After I posted this comment I looked up the etymology, the word “steak” literally comes from food being roasted on a stake. So, really, that should be the deciding factor - most steak we eat isn’t technically steak because it’s cooked in other ways.

Brazillian restaurants, the ones that come by with meat on a sword, should count as proper steak. Vegetables cooked in that manner could also be steak.

I agree that burger has always been agnostic, but steak should really just be meat. Etymologically, it was always meat roasted on a stake. Similarly, bacon should just be a specific cut of pig meat, not turkey. Both of these are intentionally misleading marketing - with bacon it’s even so when they’re using different meats, let alone vegetables.

Intentionally misleading people through advertising, in order to get more sales, is wrong.

And don’t get me started on American “biscuits” that are not cooked twice. They’re savoury scones.

It’s not about accidentally eating vegetables, it’s about products being marketed in a misleading way. If I order a pizza with bacon on it, I don’t want turkey, let alone a vegetable substitute.

However many terms are already agnostic, eg pattie, burger; these kind of things should be allowed. Also, “cooks like ground beef” isn’t a problem, however maybe the way the words highlight “ground beef” might be. Like, the “cooks from” and “made from plants” are white text on a light coloured background, as if to try and make it easier to miss.

There are already laws against intentionally misleading people with advertising. Done properly, this is just an extension of that, to counter businesses trying to get around the current law.