When is a sausage not a sausage?

[Esceptico]

Read in the papers that the meat farming lobby in the EU is trying to make “burger” and “sausage” protected words so that they can only be applied to products containing meat to stop vegetarian and vegan products “confusing” consumers. Reminded me of Yes Minister. But as real I suppose it is no laughing matter.

Apparently some countries eg France support such lunacy. Rather ironic or should I say hypocritical given the “freedom of speech” argument for allowing cartoons of Mohammed to be published.

[Mojooo]

There is a lot of protectionism in food

Anything that makes life simpler for consumers is OK for me.

[klan8456]

These kinds of rules and standards are why I love the EU so much. I’ve lived in countries without such rules, and they’re much less nice to live in.

[Mojooo]

klan8456 said:

These kinds of rules and standards are why I love the EU so much. I’ve lived in countries without such rules, and they’re much less nice to live in.

Not really, the UK takes part in the EU food protected status scheme and will continue to have its own scheme after it leaves the UK

Also there have traditionally been lots of products which had to meet a certain criteria before they could be called something - Ice Cream is an example - which only recently had its standards REDUCED from a UK standard to meet EU standards..

[ScotHill]

I've heard a number of people say that while in France, after telling people that they didn't eat meat, they were still served chicken and were faced with a bemused expression when they wouldn't eat it. So different countries have different attitudes to meat and vegetarianism.

Also, anything I've ever eaten that was called a burger or a sausage that didn't contain meat has been fking disgusting, so I don't have a problem with this at all - if you want to not eat meat then just do it, don't try to convince yourself that you're still eating meat.

edit - veggie haggis is the exception, wonderful stuff with the right accompaniments.

[MyNewLeng]

When it's not frozen and hammered into someone's lawn?

[emperorburger]

Seems "cheese-like" is up for the "chop" as well.

[klan8456]

Mojooo said:

klan8456 said:

These kinds of rules and standards are why I love the EU so much. I’ve lived in countries without such rules, and they’re much less nice to live in.

Not really, the UK takes part in the EU food protected status scheme and will continue to have its own scheme after it leaves the UK

Also there have traditionally been lots of products which had to meet a certain criteria before they could be called something - Ice Cream is an example - which only recently had its standards REDUCED from a UK standard to meet EU standards..

Compared to the US, China, India etc it’s aamIng go to to a shop and know your interests are being protected to at least some degree, and there are labelling laws etc

[civicduty]

To be fair the dictionary already does this for us;

Sausage - an item of food in the form of a cylindrical length of minced pork or other meat encased in a skin, typically sold raw to be grilled or fried before eating.

Burger - a flat round cake of minced beef that is fried or grilled and typically served in a bread roll.

So yeah sounds like a good idea to me.

[dudleybloke]

To be called a sausage by law there has to be a minimum meat content.
Some of the dirt cheap crap was sold as "bangers" to get round the law.

[Randy Winkman]

Is this the most perverse and contrary thread on PH ever? Sausage? Burger? Freedom of speech? Mohammed?

[shirt]

I was under the impression that a burger had to be meat, and of a certain % it preceded by the type of meat.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/governmen...

[mrtwisty]

dudleybloke said:

To be called a sausage by law there has to be a minimum meat content.
Some of the dirt cheap crap was sold as "emulsified high-fat offal tubes" to get round the law.

Fixed that for you

[grumbledoak]

Most of our food is produced by one of ten massive corporations. They try very hard to sell us an infinite variety of wheat, sugar, and seed oils because they are the cheapest possible crops to produce. They will substitute real ingredients with these things if they believe they can get away with it -
https://fr.reuters.com/article/mexico-dairy-idUKL1...

Food is important. The fines should be massive.

[Esceptico]

shirt said:

I was under the impression that a burger had to be meat, and of a certain % it preceded by the type of meat.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/governmen...

Like a lot of posters you seem to be (deliberately?) missing the point. Something described as a “veggie” burger or sausage clearly doesn’t contain meat. That is the whole point. Anyone who gets confused by that and buys a “veggie” product expecting it to contain meat is beyond help.

[Esceptico]

This thread is likely to cause some cognitive dissonance amongst the NP&E faithful as it will mean deciding who they hate most - the EU or vegetarians!!

[Troubleatmill]

dudleybloke said:

To be called a sausage by law there has to be a minimum meat content.
Some of the dirt cheap crap was sold as "bangers" to get round the law.

Agreed.
They used to fill it with bread crumbs and stuff.

But the tastiest sausages are not 100% meat.
Having premium ingredients added - can really make a cracking sausage.
The meat content drops - but the flavour is amazing.

[Murph7355]

klan8456 said:

These kinds of rules and standards are why I love the EU so much. I’ve lived in countries without such rules, and they’re much less nice to live in.

For the last 4yrs I've been waiting for the killer argument, and here it is.

The UK will be a poorer place in which to live if one cannot be certain whether one is buying a sausage or not.

Where were you in 2016.

[Troubleatmill]

Murph7355 said:

klan8456 said:

These kinds of rules and standards are why I love the EU so much. I’ve lived in countries without such rules, and they’re much less nice to live in.

For the last 4yrs I've been waiting for the killer argument, and here it is.

The UK will be a poorer place in which to live if one cannot be certain whether one is buying a sausage or not.

Where were you in 2016.

There are comebacks.

And then there is this comeback.

[FredericRobinson]

grumbledoak said:

Most of our food is produced by one of ten massive corporations. They try very hard to sell us an infinite variety of wheat, sugar, and seed oils because they are the cheapest possible crops to produce. They will substitute real ingredients with these things if they believe they can get away with it -
https://fr.reuters.com/article/mexico-dairy-idUKL1...

Food is important. The fines should be massive.

Which 10 corporations? 'Most' being over 50%?