The Red Meat Advisory Council of Australia has criticized the Government of Australia for delays in developing guidelines for labeling alternatives to meat and dairy products.  The Council characterized the Government responses too little and too late.  The agencies responsible for protein production are negotiating with associations representing plant-based and real-meat industries to establish guidelines for labeling regulations.

Australia appears to be behind the U.S. in mandating label text that is informative and transparent. Individual U.S. states have enacted legislation intended to place plant-based alternatives to meat at a market disadvantage.  On challenge almost all the label requirements have been declared unconstitutional as conflicting with  “commercial speech”. 

Invariably, promoters of the beef industry claim that consumers are confused by the current labeling of products, a contention that is invariably rejected by courts.  Most producers of plant-based meat alternatives actually emphasize the non-meat composition of their products since they are marketing to “health conscious” or a vegan clientele. The vegan composition of products is stressed on labels given the differential in price between plant-based alternatives and the products they are attempting to displace.