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There is much that the EU does for us which is said to be good, though I can’t think of anything offhand. But there is also much that is total and utter tosh.
It seems to me that the EU regulators must sit down now and again and dream up ways of irritating people with their pointless, and often ignored, rules. Take for example, their directives that bananas should be sold free from abnormal curves, that cucumbers ought to be sold straight or their proposal that carrots should be designated as fruit since the Portuguese make jam from them.
Now the regulators have decided that eggs and other products should be sold by weight and not number. How daft can they get? Can you imagine any British housewife asking for half a kilo of eggs or a French mademoiselle asking for a kilo of croissants?
The latest rules are buried away in no less than 174 pages of amendments to the original 75-page proposal to simplify packaging of foodstuffs and which were carried by MEPs last week. The new rules will prevent suppliers from showing the number of, for instance, oranges in a packet but their weight.
The Food Standards Agency has already said it will oppose these silly rules, a stance that is applauded by a number of lobbyists including the editor of The Grocer Trade magazine. He is spot on when he says, ‘You couldn’t make it up, could you? It would be funny if it were an April Fool’s joke. But it’s not, and it will potentially cost the industry millions, while confusing consumers no end.’
Perhaps Prime Minister Cameron and his coalition team can bring some commonsense into this silly and pointless situation?
.
There is much that the EU does for us which is said to be good, though I can’t think of anything offhand. But there is also much that is total and utter tosh.
It seems to me that the EU regulators must sit down now and again and dream up ways of irritating people with their pointless, and often ignored, rules. Take for example, their directives that bananas should be sold free from abnormal curves, that cucumbers ought to be sold straight or their proposal that carrots should be designated as fruit since the Portuguese make jam from them.
Now the regulators have decided that eggs and other products should be sold by weight and not number. How daft can they get? Can you imagine any British housewife asking for half a kilo of eggs or a French mademoiselle asking for a kilo of croissants?
The latest rules are buried away in no less than 174 pages of amendments to the original 75-page proposal to simplify packaging of foodstuffs and which were carried by MEPs last week. The new rules will prevent suppliers from showing the number of, for instance, oranges in a packet but their weight.
The Food Standards Agency has already said it will oppose these silly rules, a stance that is applauded by a number of lobbyists including the editor of The Grocer Trade magazine. He is spot on when he says, ‘You couldn’t make it up, could you? It would be funny if it were an April Fool’s joke. But it’s not, and it will potentially cost the industry millions, while confusing consumers no end.’
Perhaps Prime Minister Cameron and his coalition team can bring some commonsense into this silly and pointless situation?
.
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