Battle to protect Cornish pasties and Stilton cheese from cheap foreign imposters after Brexit
Food industry chiefs are worried that traditional British foods could lose their protected status if EU regulations are not turned into UK laws after leaving Europe
BREXIT battle-lines have been drawn...over Stilton cheese and Cornish pasties.
Food industry bosses are warning that cheap foreign imports could replace British favourites if they are not given special protection after Brexit.
Cumberland sausages and Melton Mowbray pork pies are just some of the foods currently protected by the European Union that could be replaced by foreign imposters when Britain leaves the EU.
reports that 76 traditional British food and drink items are currently protected by the EU with rules that include making sure Cornish pasties must be ‘D’ shaped and contain swede.
Other rules include pork pies containing at least 30% meat if they are to be classified as Melton Mowbray.
The regulations also protect other traditional foods including Stornoway black pudding, Fenland celery, Cumberland sausages and Whitstable oysters.
Food industry figures have told ministers they have serious concerns over the future of EU schemes that protect these items from overseas impersonators which could replace the British delicacies if present EU rules are not turned into British law.
The EU regulations contain three main programmes: protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI) and traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG).
Meetings have already been held with producers of these traditional foods as civil servants deal with the issue which could be an unintended result of Brexit.
Commentators have said that it is in the EU’s interests to recognise and respect Britain’s traditional products after Brexit because many other member countries also make use of the regulations.
Products from some countries outside the EU, such as Colombian coffee, are also already protected.
However, officials in Brussels are refusing to issue any guarantees until Theresa May begins Brexit negotiations which will start when she triggers Article 50.
In an interview on The Andrew Marr Show in October, the Prime Minister said she would trigger the formal mechanism for leaving the EU by the end of March in 2017.
It is understood that British officials want the current agreement with the EU to continue and that they are looking to see if speciality recipes can be protected using trademark regulations.
Matthew O’Callaghan, of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association, called for a swift resolution. He said: “It would be very damaging to leave these schemes … [Most] important for us is the issue of copying within the UK. It is the EU that has saved a lot of British food heritage.”
Helen Munday, chief scientific officer at the Food and Drink Federation, said: “The key thing is that [the special protections are] rooted in the EU regulations and therefore it needs to be brought over into UK law, and unless you make an effort to do that it will become null and void for the UK. Someone has to put the effort in. There is significant work to be done.”
A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said: “These products are extremely important to our reputation as a great food nation and we will work to ensure they continue to benefit from protection.”
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