“EU regulation madness” knows no limits
What follows is a story that really reminds us why Britain opted out of the EU: British citizen (except for some Scots) don’t want every single bloody detail of their private lives regulated by a nanny super-state. They have had it!
EU bureaucrats think the Europeans are first-graders, and need proper upbringing.
Too brown! says the EU Kommisars. Photo credit:
Recently reported by the online Die Welt here, the EU is now aiming to ban crispy, darker-colored french fries (darker-coloured chips for those living on the island). The reason: your safety!
“Crazy demands”
It’s just the latest damn excuse for more intrusive regulation. The EU’s regulation madness knows no limits. Just when you think it possibly couldn’t get more extreme, it does!
Our message back to EU bureaucrats: Us citizens do read, and we do know what is good for us and what isn’t. If we want our fries crispy brown from time to time, it’s for us to decide and not you clueless nanny bureaucrats in Brussels. Remember who pays you.
Past food guidelines made many of us sick
The fact of the matter is that decades-long we indeed did listen to you telling us what to eat: “high carb, low-fat”. That turned into a monumental health disaster and fiasco. And now you want to order us what to eat?
According to Die Welt:
Our fries may be golden yellow, and not darker. The EU has drawn up health-promoting rules for food processors, among them cooking instructions. The restaurant business is talking of ‘crazy demands’.”
The reason for the new laws, the EU claims, is that cooking fries and starchy products at high temperatures leads to acrylamide, a compound that studies have found increases the risk of cancer.
According to Die Welt, the EU countries have even approved the draft measure from the EU Commission. Speaking of the EU Commission, does anyone really know the name of s single person on it? Most people don’t, and it is so by design. No face, no target at which to aim criticism.
“EU regulation madness”
The law would apply to food manufacturers, restaurants and bakers. While consumer nanny groups view this as “an important step to health protection” the food and gastronomy industry are calling it “EU-regulation madness“, reports Die Welt.
If the EU wants to start doing something that really improves health, then they ought to start by taxing sugar and toxic sweeteners big time.
According to EU Health Kommissar Vytenis Andriukaitis (boy, that’s a name that’s easy to remember):
Today we have taken an important step in protecting the health and well-being of the citizens.“
No you haven’t. You have taken a step in confirming just how crazy you regulators have become.
The EU is also taking aim at the potato industry, where it intends to order potato farmer to grow “low starch potatoes” and regulate potato processors to remove starch from potatoes before frying them.
The law is planned to go into effect in Spring, 2019, Die Welt reports.
Has anyone told these EU morons that the color of the fries depends on how long the cooking oil has been used?
And think of the onions! No more carmelized onions… oh the humanity!
Isn’t that rather the point? The older the oil the more carcinogens it has developed.
It seems like a good rule to me. Too many low quality fast-food outlets use their oil far too long and when you’re travelling you won’t know until it’s too late. You can’t go back and they don’t care if you never return anyway.
Good. The EU reminds Brits almost daily why we voted Brexit. Let them begin teaching the rest of Europe why the EU must be destroyed.
A health-conscious EU should ban alcohol. And enforce Islam.
Wine, beer and even whisky in MODERATE amounts are beneficial to health.
That would be totally irrelevant to the EU commish. 🙂
If it came up in a random discussion.. OUT IT GOES. !!!
Maybe they need to enact legislation to regulate the thickness of the fries so as to assist with minimizing the cooking time and so help with reducing CO2 emissions. 😉
And the sogginess. Soggy fires are a NO-NO !!!
Everyone will have to carry around a special meter that tests the colour and soggyness, oh and thickness of fries, with the right to report any deviation from “PROPPA” immediately to the “CHIP POLICE”
Soggy fires = Soggy FRIES. !!
Its early morning down here.. pre coffee. !
Will they (or have they already) mandate the proper degree to which coffee beans MUST be roasted, but MUST NOT be roasted beyond?
Italians say good bye to espresso!
Yup, they’re going to go after the Covefefe, too.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02652030701243119?src=recsys
Look on the bright side: there should be ‘French Fry Inspectorate’ being set up and even the lowliest position should be well remunerated. 🙂
The law is planned to go into effect in Spring, 2019, Die Welt reports.
Oh dear, something’s happening around then, so it looks like we Brits will miss the opportunity open to the Continentals.
Or is it ‘We’ve had our chips’?
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/have+had+our+chips
First I’ve heard it used that way. I’m used to the expression, “cashed in his chips.” see def#4 here
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/cash+in+one%27s+chips
I.e., he no longer needs any (poker) chips, because his game is over.
I think that expression is for dying, and not so much for failing.
Similar to “He bought the farm.”
When the life insurance arrives the wife and kids will have place to live.
In 9 out of 10 rat studies, the older the vegetable cooking oil was, the higher the blood pressure. So older vegetable oil breaks down into acrylamide. What other chemicals are the break down products of high temperature vegetable oils? The very recommendation of mono- or poly-unsaturated vegetable oils may be the actual source of heart disease, high blood pressure, and some types of cancer. Do saturated animal oils break down in the same way? Wouldn’t it be nice to know!
Problem is not the colour. In general it’s the French fry itself that has little nutritional value and harmful oil. Classic case of bureaucrats trying to micromanage everything from afar and messing everything up.
The color is due to the…
Maillard reaction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction
The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor.
Nothing to do with new or old oil, though older oil may accumulate a residue of those compounds which the food picks up. Browned toast is another e.g.
The best chefs know from experience just how much to “brown” a food to give the best taste. Now, in culinary schools, the chemistry of that reaction** is also taught. Only by experience (not legislation) do chefs learn to do it to their customer’s satisfaction.
**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reactiohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction
“The best chefs know from experience ”
Unfortunately, the best chefs are rarely found in a corner fish and chip shop. 🙂
Mind you, the Vietnamese couple in the fish and chip shop I go to near the beach, do a pretty average job. They don’t over or under cook too often.. golden brown and crunchy most of the time.
They don’t have to be master chefs for the basics, just know what to do, and do it consistently. What I meant be best chefs is the unintended consequences, for which they will have to write exceptions to their stupid laws, so their own personal food isn’t turned to crap like that of we peons.
Now Pierre, you wouldn’t be accusing your EU masters of bureaucratic over-reach would you?
“… the older the vegetable cooking oil was, the higher the blood pressure.” – David R. Swanson
Depends, as Pierre writes, on the oil. Some are harmful, and others aren’t. Some good ones don’t heat well (olive), while others do (clarified butter).
There’s a LOT of disinformation about what is healthy or harmful, and if you follow it, it will hake you fat and sick.
Given the level of ignorance, it is absurd for any govt to attempt to control individual diets. And, even if they did know what was healthy for most people, it’s still none of their business telling us what we should or shouldn’t do.
For those of us who do occasionally enjoy potato fries, despite their lack of any useful nutrients, those things look delicious. 😉
“Depends, as Pierre writes, on the oil. Some are harmful, and others aren’t. Some good ones don’t heat well (olive), while others do (clarified butter).”
Motor oil probably isn’t good for cooking chips, either. !
“it will hake you fat and sick”
cute typo ?
“make” not “hake” and not deliberate
I usually don’t correct my typos, because it’s a distraction, and most people can figure out what I meant. The worst, though, are from my phone that picks the most idiotic substitute for what it “thinks” I should mean. Those, and some of my errors made in haste definitely need it.
Sorry.
Fish and chip… ! 🙂
And you know I’m the last to comment about typos.. I just thought it was funny 🙂
Fish and chip… !
Buffalo Chip…?
Sometimes I think that’s what my computer is running on! 😉
I prefer either beef or pork LARD.
“… it is absurd for any govt to attempt to control individual diets.”
The USA has been doing this for years, with spectacular results:
http://dybiz.com/sites_randomblog/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/obese-woman-very-fat.jpg
Yup. – In conjunction with major food producers, for whom it’s more profitable to sell us unhealthy junk than real food., and big pharmaceutical mfrs who can then sell us junk medicine to treat the illnesses resulting from the junk foods.
Europe is sadly headed for the precipice, for many reasons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRjoGiJRk-4
The EU is also taking aim at the potato industry, where it intends to order potato farmer to grow “low starch potatoes”
I thaught potatoes were mostly starch, so what kind of potato could that be.
What could the next be? Olive oil with less oil and pigs with less meat.
How about an EU with less buroucrats.
“I thaught potatoes were mostly starch, so what kind of potato could that be.” – Svend Ferdinandsen
Right!
It’s like in the movie “Mozart,” where the Emperor tells him his music has “too many notes,” and to write it with fewer of them.
Actually it was the American nutrition industry which pushed the high-carb, low-fat diet onto everybody.
Yes, and many thanks to Pierre for posting on that enough to penetrate my thick skull, and get me working on optimizing my diet, pretty much the exact opposite of what the “nutrition experts” recommend.
It’s a worldwide phenomenon.
http://dailysignal.com/2017/07/31/liberal-elite-wants-manage-lives-must-stopped/
If we in America can’t survives, I don’t see how Europe will stand a chance.
The best chips are those fried in beef dripping, sadly no longer available in chippies. Failing that lard is still very good,but no decent chip ever came out of a pan of vegetable oil. Such chips are pallid, soggy, and tasteless. The last chippy I knew of was over 15 years ago.I went there every week for those delicious dripping fried chips and cod with scrumptious crisp batter.Sadly the guy sold up and it was to be no more.
beef drippings: Often called tallow.
For the best tasting fries its definitely beef dripping!
Sorry, if i’m skeptical about this but sensational news media has told countless myths about supposed “EU regulation” madness. This is especially true in Britain where trash journals are just waiting for the next “news” stories about monsters in Bryssels. Unfortunately I have found out after a bit digging that many of the stories like EU banning condoms, whiskey being a toxic or something, having to put diapers on cows and “Danger”-signs on mountains, are just myths.
I mean what was that story about EU regulating how the Queen should live. In reality it was the british government themselves. Or the famous “we pay 350 million pounds a week to the EU”. This was misleading because it ignores all the benefits Britain receives. British politicans like to blame EU on everything to cover their own mistakes and news media just care about good story. The people don’t know anything about EU and the politicians know this. I think you should be aware of that.
Boris Johnson especially is a pretty big liar here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/22/opinion/who-is-to-blame-for-brexits-appeal-british-newspapers.html
Climate skeptics out of all people should be skeptical about sensationalist media claims, not just when media says something that is against their beliefs. But when media says something that confirms their beliefs it’s suddenly all trustworthy.
Just bend over and let them give it to you, Fredar !!
In the meantime, just ENJOY having a laugh at the ridiculous ideas, no matter where they come from. ! 🙂
Like the famous banana story:
“A Brussels ban on bendy bananas is one of the EU’s most persistent myths.
Bananas have always been classified by quality and size for international trade. Because the standards, set by individual governments and the industry, were confusing, the European Commission was asked to draw up new rules.
Commission regulation 2257/94 decreed that bananas in general should be “free from malformation or abnormal curvature”. Those sold as “extra class” must be perfect, “class 1” can have “slight defects of shape” and “class 2” can have full-scale “defects of shape”.
Nothing is banned under the regulation, which sets grading rules requested by industry to make sure importers – including UK wholesalers and supermarkets – know exactly what they will be getting when they order a box of bananas.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/11/boris-johnson-launches-the-vote-leave-battlebus-in-cornwall
So they don’t try and micro manage EU citizens?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/10/eu-to-launch-kettle-and-toaster-crackdown-after-brexit-vote2/
Or maybe you think this is not true?
The EU even tries its crony capitalism tricks on the seeds of the very food you try and grow. Thankfully this time they lost the vote but already moves are being made to rejig the regulation and try again.
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2261055/meps_vote_against_eu_seed_regulation.html
Basically they are trying to restrict the genetic diversity of the plants grown in the EU to only those supplied by the preferred suppliers. Make no sense, and endangers the citizens of Europe.
It isn’t just the EU that is acting on acrylamide.
https://www.ifst.org/knowledge-centre/information-statements/acrylamide-foods
Of course if one eats crispy, brown fries every day, then risk of health issues is far higher. Due to what? Acrylamide? The processed vegetable fat? The high level of sugars? Just limit the intake by eating it only from time to time. Human body is outfitted with a detoxification system. If we don’t use, we’ll lose it.
I doubt that we need to limit our intake at all.
Reading around, I have found no conclusive scientific evidence that our level of dietary intake of acrylamide has any measurable effect on our metabolism.
Until I do, my diet remains unchanged.
Oops. I was addressing Fredar as “Fred,” not realizing someone actually named Fred was posting. Sorry. And, yest to your stuff, Fred Streeter.
Here you go, Fred…
https://corporateeurope.org/food-and-agriculture/2016/09/european-commission-wants-delegate-acrylamide-control-food-industry
“You can check how far we are from an actual regulation by checking out the European Commission’s draft proposal and its annexes:
. . . .
. . . .
Article 2
The food business operators, referred to in Annex II, point 1, shall provide evidence of regular testing of their products to ensure that the application of the Code of Practice is effective in keeping acrylamide levels as low as reasonable achievable and the indicative values referred to in Annex III are to be used as benchmark.”
So, they will have to regularly test the food they prepare, and keep legal records thereof, not to mention being cited for lack of compliance if every t isn’t crossed properly or if it’s on the wrong forms. But don’t worry, because food Pric€$ won’t be affected in the least, and just because the food now tastes like crap is no reason to think restaurants will go out of business.
All hail your gastronomic saviors, without whom who knows what nonsense they’d have spent the research money on.
https://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/chemical_safety/contaminants/catalogue/acrylamide_en
I.e., not a confirmation bias at all, but a very legitimate concern, Fred.
Just take the starch out. Not a new concept:
https://media.mainememory.net/images/450/75/10873.JPG
Lots of stories about silly EU regulations. Some though, need to be checked, it has happened that the proposals came from member states, not the “EU Brussels Monster”. In any case, it is far better to fight such stupid ideas inside the union, instead of leaving it. Nor was this the reason for Brexit, that was far more related to xenophobia and some lingering illusions about British greatness. Today, many brexiteers have second thoughts, but it is not likely that there will be a new referendum.
You are entitled to your opinion no matter how wrong it is.
Many anti-EU people I know in the UK think and hope the UK will leave ASAP. The rest of the world is there to trade with. Iceland has already shown the world how these utterly left-wing organizations should be treated when they had a banking crisis force on them — Leave, and leave quickly and look after your own nation.
No partnership of nations looks after any one nation’s citizens better than that nation can do for itself. And certainly the EU with its crooked legal systems is not going to look after anyone but the few elitist that run it.
As a point of note — the EU has never yet managed to pass its own financial audit. NEVER! And that is because there is a deep and controlling vein villainy at it’s heart!
A confederation of EU trading nations states would be an excellent idea — everything else is a power-hungry, centralized, anti-democratic, bureaucratic catastrophe.
Certainly not a ‘story’:
https://www.ifst.org/knowledge-centre/information-statements/acrylamide-foods
When (finally) given the opportunity to vote for/against joining the European Community, I voted ‘for’. I was in favour of the ‘Common Market’.
The EU is well beyond what I voted for, and had there been referenda each step along the way, I would have voted against going too far too soon.
Not because I am ‘xenophobic’ or have any illusions regarding Britain’s ‘greatness’, no, it is just that I prefer a greater degree of democracy than is on offer in the EU.
As for the “Brexit” campaign, it was totally irrelevant to me.
Wait till they enact the same rules on croissants which have precisely the same acrylamide build up. No more slightly crunchy pain au chocolat.
Would roasted barley have any of the deadly acrylamides?
I think this needs much more study before any regulation, but not a high priority.
It can’t be that deadly though because it is in all browned starchy foods.
You mean, like beer?