Martin Beckford's article says:
The European Commission is drawing up guidelines on the permitted ingredients of the traditional West Country lunch, so that it can be given the same protected status as other regional specialties such as Melton Mowbray pork pies.
Officials have decreed that only minced or diced beef, sliced potato, onion and swede are allowed to fill the pastry.
Baffling judgements and official decrees are the stuff of much EU reporting.
So what does the Cornish Pasty Association have to say about this EU meddling?
Following some press coverage over the past few days, the Cornish Pasty Association can confirm that the European Commission (EC) does not dictate ingredients or names of ingredients for products seeking EU protected status.
Products from the UK looking to get protected status prepare their applications stipulating the criteria, description and recipe of their food products. The EC will evaluate the applications once they are revised by Defra. The EC will provide the final approval on any particular product.
The Cornish Pasty Association has applied for Protected Geographical Indication to request that only Cornish pasties made in Cornwall and to the traditional recipe and manner are called Cornish pasties.
A joint letter to the Telegraph from the Cornish Pasty Association and the EU Representative in the UK says Beckford's article 'whilst amusing is inaccurate'.
It just riles me that the EU has to have a press officer who just has to debunk these stupid stories. There's a whole section on the EU website dedicated to "tabloid myths".
ReplyDeleteIf only these papers weren't so hellbent on pandering to the editorial anti-EU agenda, people would probably have a far fairer judgement of it.
The Health & Safety Executive also has a "myth busting" section on their website to correct all those "elf & safety" stories trotted out by the likes of LittleJohn.
ReplyDeleteBut...
ReplyDelete"Officials have decreed that only ... swedes ... are allowed to fill the pastry."
ties in with
"only Cornish pasties made in Cornwall and to the traditional recipe and manner are called Cornish pasties."
if the traditional recipe includes swedes. So though the EU officials don't directly list the ingredients they do stipulate that a set recipe must be used and recipe include ingredients.
Anonymous - The point is that it is the Cornish Pasty Association, not the EU, who are saying what the recipe and ingredients are.
ReplyDelete