David Cameron: Stop trying to 'protect' our food!
by Sophie Morris | 05 April 2011 | 
23 comments
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From now on, you’ll get a rap on the knuckles from the likes of Dave Cameron if you take the name of the Cumberland sausage in vain. Is this another sign of political correctness gone mad?
Bought any Cumberland Sausages recently? Noticed anything different about them?
Well you should have. Because these sausages are protected now. That’s right. From now on, you’ll get a rap on the knuckles from the likes of Dave Cameron if you take the name of the Cumberland sausage in vain.
Why?
The award of EU “Protected Geographical Indication” (PGI) status means that coiled peppery pork sausages can only be called ‘Cumberland sausages’ if they were actually made in the county of Cumbria.
The exact rules – yes, there are now official Government rules about Cumberland sausages - state: “The sausage must be produced, processed and prepared in Cumbria, have a meat content of at least 80%, include seasoning and be sold in a long coil.”
So, you couldn’t apply the label of ‘Cumberland sausage’ if, say, you made exactly the same sausage from exactly the same ingredients, but in Lancashire.
Is there anything wrong with this?
OK, so we all want a decent banger and I can’t argue with the Cumberland recipe. The question for me is: does the sausage actually gain anything from being made in Cumbria? Am I, the Cumberland-sausage-eater, actually any better off – seeing as it doesn’t taste any different?
Of course, it is obviously great news for Cumberland sausage producers. But it’s bad news for all the other sausage producers who want to make Cumberland sausages. Are they all supposed to up sticks and move to Cumbria? Isn’t this political correctness gone mad?
This debate has added fuel to the furnace of confusion surrounding the EU’s protected status for certain foods. Which foods should be marked out, and which shouldn’t?
Because Cumberland sausages aren’t the only product recently to attain this hallowed status. Oh no. Far from it....
PGI foods
Other foods you may not realise hold PGI status include Parma ham, champagne, sherry and Feta cheese. All of these foods must be made in the EU regions they originated from or they cannot be sold under their famous monikers.
This is causing a bit of a ruckus at the moment, because every local food producer is trying to get their hands on PGI status.
I don’t blame them – PGI status provides producers with publicity and makes their produce stand out as ‘the real deal’.
This, of course, means they can charge higher prices, even if the actual quality of the protected product is no different when it is made in another region.
Of course, there are exceptions. Welsh lamb, for example, is a PGI food. This seems fair because the lambs have to be reared in certain conditions, and these conditions (the climate and pastures) are present in Wales. The PGI status does not claim that lamb from elsewhere is not good, just that Welsh lamb has a specific taste.
When you come to finished foods, though, like sausages, I think the same taste and quality can be achieved in butchers and kitchens across the country, as long as the basic ingredients and method are right.
The bets are on
It’s all getting completely out of hand. William Hill has even opened books on what food will get the PGI nod next, with Red Leicester cheese, Lancashire hotpot and Bakewell Pudding and Scottish Wild Salmon all in the running.
Scottish Wild Salmon seems a strong contender. But Lancashire hotpot? My grandmother grew up in Lancashire making its famed hotpot. When she moved to Cheshire, it didn’t taste any different. And she certainly didn’t start calling it a Cheshire hotpot.
Buy the real thing
Stornoway Black Pudding is also hoping to get the status this year. It is made by just a few Scottish producers who say they are keen for the accolade so that customers will know they are buying the real thing, and not a poor imitation.
I’m all for protecting the quality of great foods, but the Stornoway Black Pudding, like the Cumberland sausage, is linked to the region where it is traditionally made, but not dependent on that region.
Yorkshire puddings and Eccles cakes have been denied PGI, apparently because their names are too generic for them to be considered as the product of one place alone.
How the place names “Yorkshire” and “Eccles” are more generic than “Cumberland” is anyone’s guess, but a pretty impossible argument to defend.
Not all Cornish pasties are worthy of PGI
What’s more, the Cornish pasty has also recently been awarded PGI, a move which has upset other artisan pasty producers. One Devon producer, Chunk of Devon, has pointed out that there are three large pasty factories in Cornwall which mass produce the popular food. These factories can benefit from the PGI mark, even though there are many better quality pasties made elsewhere.
Chunk of Devon even won the prize of the best Cornish Pasty at 2009’s British Pie Awards, but was not allowed to compete the following year.
Other foods of Britain’s 44 that have the PGI status include Stilton, Cornish clotted cream and Melton Mowbray pork pies.
It’s all about the campaign
Why some products are winning the status and others aren’t is becoming increasingly confused. Clearly, the foods with the best publicity campaign behind them are winning every time.
The PGI mark is being devalued
The problem is, the more foods that are named PGI, the less the symbol is worth in itself. It started off as a way to protect and publicise our heritage foods, but I think it’s developed into little more than a grubby scramble for gold stars.
What do you think?
Comments
by daveaberdeen | on 07 April 2011
luverlygrub. So glad you're not bringing party politics into this!
by davidinnotts | on 08 April 2011
What a provocative post! And so many responses - so many who fell for the needling!
The real point here is the whole reason for the protection of provenance. It's to keep the big boys (and the unscrupulous small ones, too) from trying to fool us, the buyers, that their inferior product is something valued for its quality and origin. This is how regional protection began.
And EU law recognizes this with, (let's be cynical), enough loopholes so that some commercial friends can take advantage. Champagne (was it the first?) was unique to a certain region and method of making, both. OK, now other producers have matched it, so well that even the experts get fooled in blind tests. But the cachet of Champagne is still worth the protection.
Cheddar Cheese? It got famous for the method and the milk in the area, both. But that was long ago, and worldwide copying for over a century have lost the Cheddar area the chance of protecting the name. Nevertheless, they could still apply for protection for 'Cheddar from Cheddar' - they ought to, because the best small-producer cheddar from the area is among the best of the 'cheddar-method' cheeses.
In each of the cases gaining recognition, the specification is carefully laid down, as well as the geographical area which can produce the 'genuine article'. And I think that this is right. The problems will come because the specifications don't often mention quality, only specified ingredients, and would allow, say, Kraft, Nestle or General Foods to open a giant factory to outproduce everyone else, swamping the market and robbing us of choice as the smaller producers were undercut and shut down.
This hasn't happened anywhere yet, so I see the PGI system as working quite well, so far. It keeps local producers in business and promotes a local name. What about the few losers, as mentioned in the article? Devon Pasties, past prizewinners, should do well, with plenty of publicity. And my local cheese (I walk past the herds that produce it) is Stichelton Cheese - it's an old name for Stilton, and was denied PGI status because it uses unpasteurized milk, which would never have got past the Brussels bureaucrats. Is it a handicap? Maybe; but the second place I saw selling it in the early days was a supermarket in San Diego, on the US-Mexican border. A long way from the Welbeck Farm Shop where I buy it now, on the producing estate! And it really is the BEST Stilton!
David.
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