Bacon made from chicken: meat names overhauled?

In the summer of 2019, New York Pizza launched pizzas with a cauliflower-bottom. This did not go unnoticed. The YouTube clip contained a big wink to telephone sex lines and was therefore able to go through the brackets - it was obviously a parody. For the posters at bus stops nationwide - containing a naked woman with two cauliflowers in front of her breasts - things didn't end so well.

New game, new chances. Last summer, New York Pizza launched its 100% chicken bacon pizza. This did not go unnoticed either. Soon a complainant contacted the Advertising Code Committee. The text "100% chicken bacon" would be misleading, because bacon should always be made from pork. "Bacon" made from chicken should therefore never be called bacon, according to the complainant. New York Pizza states that the expression is anything but misleading: through "100% chicken" consumers understand that it is chicken. The Advertising Code Committee agrees and rejects the complaint. Bacon is not a reserved indication. This means that it is also not in regards to pork. Although the average consumer will initially associate the indication with pork, it is sufficiently clear from the advertisements that a certain type of meat and taste made from (100%) chicken is promoted.

A win for New York Pizza and perhaps also for the rest of the food industry. We are now accustomed to vegetarian products with traditional meat indications in the refrigerated section. And this decision emphasises that non-vegetarian products can also redefine a non-reserved meat  indication. The only condition: make it sufficiently clear that you are giving a twist to a traditional meat indication, so that there will be no doubt.

Lisanne Steenbergen