Aug
6
A quick recce at Waitrose
Filed Under Waitrose
I had a quick trip round Waitrose earlier on. There wasn’t time for a proper look round but it looks like Waitrose are pretty good at mentioning country of origin but there are inconsistencies.
This gammon is labelled as English but it shows the Union Flag.
English gammon - british flag
But these Welsh (it says on the back) Lamb fillets are but are described as British lamb. Obviously Wales is in Britain and England is in Britain but why can’t they be consistent? Why doesn’t it say Welsh Lamb?
It also has a sticker promoting the Beefy and Lamby website – not sure what that’s about yet.
Welsh lamb - marked British
Looks nice though eh? A bit of olive oil , sealed in the frying pan then into a hot oven for 20 mins. to be served with buttered marrow [W.Sussex, UK] and sweet onion, steamed pointed spring cabbage [England] and new potatoes [UK] .
Yum – better get rattling some pots and pans. Promise not to bore you with every evening meal I have.
Feel free to recce for us – field reports are always welcome.
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7 Responses to “A quick recce at Waitrose”
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Boycot Dairycrest
Beefy & Lamby is to promote English beef and lamb but because of EU rules they’re not allowed to tell you on the TV to eat English beef or lamb.
“because of EU rules they’re not allowed to tell you on the TV to eat English beef or lamb”
Citation needed.
The EU laws apply to governments, if the English Beef and Lamb Executive (who run Beefy and Lamby) recieve government funding their may be restrictions. How about this citation fro your own Northern Irish assembly:
Promoting Northern Ireland Produce
Mr Ian Paisley Jnr asked the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development what steps will be taken to promote Northern Ireland produce.
(AQW 436/99)
Ms Rodgers: There are very strict EU rules limiting the extent to which governments can support publicity campaigns which promote domestically produced goods in preference to similar goods from other parts of the EU. Consequently, public funds cannot be used to endorse food produce on the basis of its region of origin. However, my Department is providing £2 million to support the marketing of Northern Ireland redmeat on the basis of its quality. In addition, £400,000 has been embarked to support marketing in the pigmeat sector. My Department also works closely with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in supporting the marketing and promotional activities of the Northern Ireland agri-food sector.
link
“However, my Department is providing £2 million to support the marketing of Northern Ireland redmeat on the basis of its quality”
Thanks. That’s exactly why I asked actually – I recall seeing TV ads for Northern Irish produce on TV in recent months. So it sounds like they’re not allowed to tell you to eat English beef and lamb but they’re allowed to market/promote home-grown produce and tell you why it’s so wonderful (the NI one, IIRC, focused on how our climate was just right for growing crops and grazing and about the hard-working farmers blah blah blah).
That doesn’t sound that unreasonable really.
Welsh Lamb has some sort of EU special designation as a distinct, regional brand/product. I think Scottish Beef is the same. England isn’t an EU region, we can’t have the same designation for English products.
And before you ask, this is just something I remember from a long time ago, I don’t have a citation for it!
Don’t worry Wonko, we can find our own citations:
DEFRA.
Welsh lamb, Welsh beef, Scotch lamb and Scotch beef are all protected names. This simply means you can’t call lamb not from Wales Welsh lamb. It is not related to the EU regions. Gloucestershire cider is protected too for example.
English beef and English lamb have been applied for and are under consideration.
Could we please have the same ‘protected names’ applied for in relation to cheese? I got into conversation with a senior lady at Waitrose yesterday while standing in front of a poster advertising cheese. I told her that not much cheese (as far as I know) is made outside England (well, all right, there’s Caerphilly) but off the top of my head, I can think of Wensleydale, Cheshire, Cheddar, Stilton, Gloucester, and variants. All of these are English cheeses and should therefore carry the St George’s Flag.
I didn’t realise that it was all down to EU regulations – Scotland and Wales are ‘EU regions’ whereas England is not. This goes a long way towards an explanation as to why the main stores are so weak-kneed.
Incidentally, we’ve just been over in Brittany. Since I was last there, some 12 years ago, there have been big changes. They now have all the place-names and road-signs in Breton as well as in French. They’re ‘reclaiming their language and culture’ and are twinned with places in Ireland, Wales and Scotland – the Celtic link, you see. All this is down to Brittany being an EU region! And who’s paying for it, one may ask?