Another EU outrage: Cornish pasty scandal


by Sunny Hundal    
11:00 am - August 26th 2010

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Martin Beckford at the Telegraph reported this week:

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.

ZOMG, those bastards from the EU! It’s an outrage etc etc.

Bizarrely, the Cornish Pasty Association doesn’t seem to agree:

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.
…
Larry File, Chairman of the Cornish Pasty Association, commented: “We have been working to get protected status for the Cornish pasties for eight years now…. It is in our best interest, for our food heritage and local economies, to safeguard our quality produce. We should encourage more producers to protect their foods and the EC plays an important role in giving the final seal of approval.”

A joint letter from the European Commission and Cornish Pasty Association to the Telegraph called it “amusing but inaccurate”.

Hah! Those sneaky people at the EC; I bet they quickly changed their minds once the mighty Telegraph got outraged. That showed them!

Just wait until the Daily Mail hears of this…

[hat-tip Tabloid Watch]

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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. CS Clark

For pastry read pasty throughout presumably.

It’s also amusing that amusing but accurate is inaccurate, since it should be amusing but inaccurate.

2. Robin

also, cornish pasty not cornish pastry

3. Sally

I think the Telegraph just wanted to give a bit of publicity to Cornwall, as their great white dope was on holiday down their. Predending to take his holiday in the UK, like last year, before he flew off to the Sun.

4. Tim Worstall

Sunny, I fear that you’ve not quite grasped the linguistic complexity here.

A swede and a turnip are indeed different root vegetables (although closely related).

But where it gets complicated is that which word we use to describe one or the other changes as you move around the country.

I may well manage to get this the wrong way around but up north (and certainly in Scotland) what we southerners call a swede is called a turnip. And what we southerners call a turnip is known as a swede.

So, for examples, those “neeps” that the Scots have with their boiled sheep’s stomach are in fact the orangey stuff that we call swedes.

That is what the problem is: not that foods which get protected status have to be made from certain things in certain ways (although the very idea strikes me as ridiculous that there should be “protected status”) but that the language changes meaning that what is a swede and what is a turnip changes across the country.

To the point where, if we were to have really strict food content labelling a Cornish pasty sold in Harrogate should have listed as ingredients turnips, while it is illegal to make them out of anything other than swedes.

Yes, it is absurd but then that’s what you get, absurdity, when you try to make such detailed rules centrally for 500 million people.

5. Shatterface

Yep, Cornish *pasty* not *pastry*.

Please amend before Lee has a coronary.

6. Sunny Hundal

Damn my quick editing skills. Sorted now

7. Rapscallion

Not quite Sunny, you still have Cornish Pastry Association in the line begining “A joint letter..”

8. Watchman

Why is there a ‘Cornish Pasty Association’ anyway? Answer (from their website):

The Cornish Pasty Association was formed in 2002 by a group of more than 50 pasty makers based in Cornwall. The Association exists to protect the quality and the reputation of the Cornish pasty and to stop consumers being misled by pasty makers who trade off the value of the name without producing a genuine product.

This strikes me as recreating a medieval bakers’ guild… Basically, they want to limit production of a certain foodstuff to a limited number of people, including themselves. I am sure that we are all opposed to such monopolies of power?

9. Shatterface

The practice is hardly unique cornish bakers – there’s Champagne, Melton Mowbury pies, Kendle Mint Cakes, etc.

10. Watchman

Shatterface,

And my concerns about cartels and closed shops applies to those as well…

Can’t find a Kendal Mint Cake Association (although there are apparently only three manufacturers, so that would be a cartel), but there is certainly a guild of pork pie makers (http://www.mmppa.co.uk/) and I believe that Champagne has its producers body also.

How is a body limiting production of a commodity of a benefit to anyone but themselves is quite an important question.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    Another EU outrage: the Cornish pastry scandal exposed http://bit.ly/cLUtkb

  2. Marjorie Smith

    RT @libcon: Another EU outrage: the Cornish pastry scandal exposed http://bit.ly/cLUtkb

  3. Gareth Winchester

    RT @libcon Another EU outrage: the Cornish pasty scandal exposed http://t.co/0xf23Dv Damn Eurocrats trying to control our way of life!

  4. Mel B

    RT @dnotice: RT @libcon Another EU outrage: the Cornish pasty scandal exposed http://t.co/0xf23Dv Damn Eurocrats trying to control our w …

  5. Press Not Sorry

    RT @dnotice: RT @libcon Another EU outrage: the Cornish pasty scandal exposed http://t.co/0xf23Dv Damn Eurocrats trying to control our way of life!

  6. sunny hundal

    Telegraph outraged the Cornish Pasty is threatened by EU! Not the Cornish Pasty Association tho: http://bit.ly/cLUtkb

  7. sunny hundal

    Telegraph outraged the Cornish Pasty is threatened by EU! Not the Cornish Pasty Association tho: http://bit.ly/cLUtkb

  8. Yokel Bear (Mark)

    RT @sunny_hundal: Telegraph outraged the Cornish Pasty is threatened by EU! Not the Cornish Pasty Association tho: http://bit.ly/cLUtkb

  9. Yokel Bear (Mark)

    RT @sunny_hundal: Telegraph outraged the Cornish Pasty is threatened by EU! Not the Cornish Pasty Association tho: http://bit.ly/cLUtkb

  10. martyn odea

    https://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/08/26/another-eu-outrage-the-cornish-pastry-scandal-exposed/

  11. Hsmith

    Another EU outrage: Cornish pasty scandal | Liberal Conspiracy: Another EU outrage: Cornish pasty scandal. by Sunn… http://bit.ly/d51pPb

  12. Hsmith

    Another EU outrage: Cornish pasty scandal | Liberal Conspiracy: Another EU outrage: Cornish pasty scandal. by Sunn… http://bit.ly/d51pPb

  13. Howard Smith

    Another EU outrage: Cornish pasty scandal | Liberal Conspiracy: Another EU outrage: Cornish pasty scandal. by Sunn… http://bit.ly/d51pPb





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