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Brits left baffled by Brexit's 'not for EU' food labels
- bloopernova 3y agoAre the tories going to put a "NO GIRLS OR EU ALLOWED" sign on their treehouse? EDIT: or a "This is a LOCAL shop, for LOCALS only"
- sp332 3y agoThe best part is customers demanding their non-EU food be held to EU standards.
- s1artibartfast 3y agoWhy is that humorous? It seems entirely possible to want high quality foods, and also not to be part of the EU. The vast majority of the world falls in this category.
- sp332 3y agoIf Britain wants higher standards, they can address their own standards. This is like Americans complaining that their meat is not labelled according to Japanese regulations. It's just irrelevant.
- s1artibartfast 3y agoIndeed, which is my point. The subtext to a lot of these comments seem to be "if you want food standards, you shouldnt have left" as if the choices are mutually exclusive.
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoBrexit debacle is a real life comedy skit.
- Hamuko 3y agoI recently bought a new Dell monitor and I noticed that it had two sets of energy efficiency labels on the side of the box. It looked like this (except with a bit different numbers): https://twitter.com/jonworth/status/1463961078593896450 https://twitter.com/jonworth/status/1463961078593896450 I guess this is yet another great Brexit victory.
- mavhc 3y agoSurely the funniest bit about those labels is they're measuring kWh/1000 hours
- Hamuko 3y agoMakes them easier to parse for the average person than if they were in just raw kWh. A GU10 Philips Hue White Ambiance with a crap G efficiency rating is like 5 kWh/1000h.
- rich_sasha 3y agoGas pipelines, from memory, measure gas flow also in kWh/h. I mean, it would feel weird to measure flow of a material medium in Watts, but still...
- d--b 3y agoWhat’s weird is that they automatically assume it’s not! I’d assume it’s not part of a trade agreement or something. The brits just think “oh well, it’s probably the government colluding with big food companies to screw us over”. The worst part is that they’re probably right!
- kybernetikos 3y ago> The worst part is that they’re probably right! I don't think they are just yet, but I also assume that that is where this will all head.
- planede 3y agoDid food standards desync between the UK and EU considerably since Brexit? I doubt that loosening food standards happen in general, but I can imagine newer EU food standards that are not copied over to the UK.
- Mashimo 3y agoFrom the article: > Shoppers can rest assured, however, that the labels do not denote a reduction in standards. Aside from some divergence on pesticides, British food standards so far remain largely unchanged since Brexit.
- inductive_magic 3y agoThis is quite the misleading wording. Britains own standards remain largely unchanged, meaning that they did not reimplement the standards enforced by the eu via national law. It follows that the standards are lower than pre brexit. /edit: apparently I stand corrected.
- jcranmer 3y agoOne of the steps of Brexit was incorporating all the then-existing EU standards into national law, because that was far easier than trying to figure out which regulations they wanted and which regulations they didn't in the X-month period they had.
- inductive_magic 3y agoI’m not sure I follow. The eu regulations no longer apply to food companies operating in the UK, as the UK no longer is in eu-jurisdiction. The uk govt would have to re-implement them one by one, which a) would be a considerable effort and b) defeats the point of brexit, and thus likely come at political costs. /edit: thanks for the responses, TIL.
- kwhitefoot 3y ago> The uk govt would have to re-implement them one by one, You have it backwards. They have to de-implement them in order to get rid of them. The EU doesn't have federal laws in the way that the US does, each law is independently implemented in each member state.
- flohofwoe 3y agoGreat Britain has a bit of a history with product warning labels "backfiring" ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_in_Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_in_Germany
- yashg 3y agoIronic. I thought Brexiters didn't want Brussels to make rules for them.
- fmajid 3y agoNot that different from US consumers insisting on Mexican Coca-Cola because it is made with sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup.
- paulmd 3y agoUS consumers didn’t just vote for Mexit, though
- yorwba 3y agoMaybe they should've labeled it 'for UK only' instead.
- planede 3y agoI assume the UK does export some of these products outside the EU, so that would be even worse.
- ben_w 3y agoIt does, but it also still exports to the EU. This kind of label is more of "we can't be arsed with getting a full certification for this product" and the mix of taxation with the head-in-the-sand solution to where the Northern Ireland customs checks go. Quite a lot of people spoke of both of these, loudly, between the vote and the implementation. Their concerns were not only ignored, they were derided for bring it up.
- planede 3y agoIsn't there a blanket ban on the UK exporting meat and dairy products to the EU now? Or is there any legal path to certify UK dairy products to be sold in the EU?
- ben_w 3y agoNo blanket ban, the rules for the UK are now just like they are for any other non-EU member: https://food.ec.europa.eu/animals/animal-products-movements/products-animal-origin-human-consumption_en https://food.ec.europa.eu/animals/animal-products-movements/... "It's in my luggage" isn't allowed any more, and many reporters conflate (in all kinds of ways) what you can do as a private individual with what is possible for export businesses: https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/carry/meat-dairy-animal/index_en.htm https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/carry/meat-dair...
- rgblambda 3y agoThe main reason this labelling exists is for exporting into/through Northern Ireland. Because there's limited border checks, it's to stop non EU standard food being exported to Northern Ireland, and then on to the EU. In Northern Ireland, names and symbols matter. It's smart to avoid "UK" being prominently displayed where possible.
- ghusto 3y ago> “In a food world where labeling leaves a lot to be desired and has been subject to much politics, for the government to introduce a ‘not for EU’ is frankly stupid,” Tim Lang, a professor emeritus of food policy at City University of London, said. Then perhaps Tim Lang, professor emeritus should have raised this "stupid" move some years ago, when it was announced.
- rcxdude 3y agowhat makes you think he didn't?
- rasz 3y agoThe funny thing is its not UK gov doing this, its UK gov reluctantly agreeing to it while being reamed by EU. Labels of no exports.
- phoe-krk 3y agoHe did. Or, rather, he has been, for a long time well before Brexit. https://theconversation.com/how-brexit-threatens-britains-food-security-61716 https://theconversation.com/how-brexit-threatens-britains-fo... https://foodresearch.org.uk/publications/food-and-brexit/ https://foodresearch.org.uk/publications/food-and-brexit/ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/22/tim-lang-interview-professor-of-food-policy-city-university-supply-chain-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/22/tim-lang... https://sussex.figshare.com/articles/report/A_food_Brexit_time_to_get_real/23447051 https://sussex.figshare.com/articles/report/A_food_Brexit_ti... Have you done any basic research or even bare-minimum Googling before making a comment?
- yorwba 3y agoThose links seem to be about the impact of Brexit on food policy in general, not this label in particular.
- phoe-krk 3y agoFrom the little bit of reading-between-the-lines in these, I assume that the author has been critical of Brexit with regard to UK national food issues; this aligns with the explicit "stupid" label made in this post.
- OJFord 3y agoMissed opportunity to give existing EU-compatible food safety standards a BS number, and stick a kitemark on everything spinning it as a positive (rather than consumer-neutral, though misinterpreted as negative).
- rasz 3y agoNo opportunity. Any manufacturer wanting to export anything to EU, and that includes Ireland, needs to label all of his UK bound wares with "not safe for human consumption" labels.
- ben_w 3y agoThe 90s called, Angus Deayton wants to be credited for his joke about British Beef getting a special label during the BSE crisis — a skull and crossbones with the word "Achtung".
- tivert 3y ago> Another posted a picture of some ham in Sainsbury’s, moaning: “We presume not meeting EU food safety standards. Good enough for little Englanders who thrive on second-rate everything though.” Not sure exactly what a "little Englander" is (I presume some political faction); but whenever someone throws in a contemptuous dig like that, I feel a little schadenfreude, like their unhappiness is deserved.
- harimau777 3y agoIt sounds like Little Englander means a Brit who is a Euroskeptic and has nationalistic tendencies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Englander https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Englander
- tgv 3y agoHowever, the current Brexiteers favor a powerful Britania that rules the waves. That does not seem to rhyme with independence of colonies, which is what that wiki entry describes. It might be that the writer thought it meant something else, though.
- jcranmer 3y agoIt's an ironic appellation of the term. The Brexiteers may want to be a world-striding UK, but the UK doesn't have that clout. In leaving the EU, they left one of the entities that did have that clout (in the rare moments that the EU could find a unified voice).
- harimau777 3y agoIt sounds to me like maybe there's an older use of the term that emphasized independence from the colonies and a newer version that maps more or less to "right populist". I don't live in the UK, but it seems like this might be similar to how the new populist/Trumpist Republicans are still called "Republicans" even though they don't support a lot of things that previously were associated with Republicans (foreign intervention, state & local rights, etc.).
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- p0d 3y agoI am from Northern Ireland at the heart of this confusion. I think Veda Bread should be marked as Not For EU. I am sure this alone would encourage immigration to our little island.
- RugnirViking 3y agoa lot of hatred for assumed and imagined hypocrites here. In general I feel a lot of the discourse around what people who supported brexit believe or are like (or indeed, what all british people are like) is entirely divorced from my experience living in the country. I don't know what to do but be saddened by people delighting in widening rifts between people
- quickslowdown 3y agoI'm sure some people are delighted by this. My take on it is that this is the bed the YES voters made, and now they are lying in it. I don't get any pleasure from rubes being duped, but it's also hard to have sympathy for them. They had an opportunity to think about this before voting, they had all kinds of people talking about the consequences, and they went right ahead with voting YES anyway. I wish everyone could have critical thinking & reasoning skills, but since that isn't the world we live in, highlighting the after effects of decisions like this feels like the responsible thing to do for the next time a hugely consequential bill is introduced. We don't need to mock the people affected, but pointing out the completely foreseeable outcomes as they're happening is still important.
- Vecr 3y agoIt's a Northern Ireland thing, because the land border to the rest of Ireland is also a land border to the EU. The UK's food standards are fine, last time I checked the overall food security (welfare, etc) and food standards were tied in second place, with the US.
- RugnirViking 3y ago> My take on it is that this is the bed the YES voters made, and now they are lying in it. But that's exactly my point, you're seeing this as a person having made a foolish decision, and now suffering for it. But there is no such person mentioned in the article. It's an entirely imagined hypocrite. I imagine all of the people upset that they no longer have EU food standards voted to keep the EU food standards... The people mentioned in the article are from london and are eating "Ardennes-style pâté". They are not, as a class, people who voted for brexit. In the article, one of them complains about the nationalistic fervour of others that led them to this point. I don't imagine there are any brexit voters out there who feel anything other than pleased about the appearance of "not for EU" labels. They probably feel it supports long-suffering local farmers, and will serve to stimulate the production of things in the UK as opposed to importing it from eastern/southern Europe. Whether they are right or not is entirely immaterial to my point, which is that people who know very little about matters persist in feeling superior over people they don't understand the motivations of
- andy99 3y agoCould be worse, you could be in Canada: UK halts trade negotiations with Canada over hormones in beef ban. Canada has been pushing for the UK to relax a ban on hormone-treated beef, which its producers say in effect shuts them out of the British market. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-68098177 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-68098177
- rcxdude 3y agoPleasantly surprised the government is being sensible about this. I suppose they reckon food standards have enough popular political sway they'd be losing out if they compromised on it (it was absolutely one of the big fears about trade deals post-brexit: being strong-armed into lowering standards by the US especially).
- moltar 3y agoDoubt it has anything to do with sensibility. It’s typical protectionism of own domestic market under pretence of higher quality standards. I bet UK has a good hold on domestic animal husbandry given the history and geography.
- rcxdude 3y agoYet another example of how the UK should have thought about the land border with Ireland before embarking on Brexit.
- ta1243 3y agoMany did. Most people alive now did. These are the demographics that did not want brexit 1) Educated 2) Young 3) Living in Northern Ireland 4) High income However about 1 in 4 people alive in the UK in 2016 voted to strip the citzenship from 67 million people and enact trade barriers with the major economy on the doorstep, so thats what we have.
- dboreham 3y agoThe whole point of Brexit and other populist initiatives is that they aren't anchored in reality.
- roydivision 3y ago> Shoppers can rest assured, however, that the labels do not denote a reduction in standards. ..so far. One of the oft repeated reasons for leaving the EU is that "we no longer have to follow 'their' guidelines." There is nothing stopping the UK government from diluting food standards.
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- varispeed 3y agoAt least the label is not "not for filthy EU" or something along the line. (I hope people get that this is a joke)