…EU enacts law to regulate the color of potato and grain-based foods with the aim of protecting public from high cooking temperatures
Too dark! EU now regulating bread color from baking at too high temperatures. Photo credit: Fritzs, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.
The following should be a viewed as a shot across the bow concerning the extent and zeal to which the EU is capable of when it comes to regulation. Just imagine if they were given a free hand to regulate all things related to CO2 and climate change. It’s getting frightening.
I’ve gotten used to the high levels of regulation here in Europe, and it’s gotten tough to surprise me. Yet, EU bureaucrats never fail at finding new ways to do so.
Nanny state
The latest pertains to the color of bread. The most recent news on EU regulation is reported for example by the Austrian online Wochenblick here, which writes: “EU regulation: Effective immediately our bread is not allowed to be too dark”!
The risk, according to the EU, is acrylamide, a carcinogenic compound that can form on starchy food if the cooking temperature is too high (some studies suggest).
European nannies are afraid some people could get sick from eating overly dark bread.
Meanwhile, it’s business-as-usual for the obviously dangerous product sugar, whose consumption in Europe has reached dangerous levels with diabetes becoming an epidemic. But the days of unregulated sugar use may also be coming to an end. Regulating sugar would make sense.
Aim is to curb acrylamide from high temperature cooking
The dark-bread regulation went into effect last Wednesday, and appears to be a part of the regulation package to ban golden, crispy french fries as well.
Wochenblick reports that the regulation are for all products based on potatoes, grains, and also coffee. The EU intends to conduct food inspections in the future.
Regulating living down to the detail
The new highly intrusive regulations are the latest rules aimed at limiting coffee machines, restricting wood-burning stoves, vacuum cleaner power ratings, and lawn mower emissions, to name a few.
A Google search already shows that EU regulations for outdoor barbecues are likely in the works. Readers can look into that themselves to determine if that’s the case or not. Just imagine what that would look like.
The EU is only just getting started with all the regulation-mania.
More background here.
Pournelle’s iron law of bureaucracy: In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.
I agree. All in all, where does it end? One can deem almost anything a risk, and so move to regulate. All you need is “science” to back it up.
Acrylamide which humans have been consuming since they first cooked their food is adequately handled by a normal healthy humans. Quite literally you’ll piss it away. If you feed lab rat excessive amounts of it, guess what? They get sick with cancer. Not really surprising, eh?
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylamide
However it is known healthy humans have detoxifying enzyme systems:(from the same wiki )
With bureaucratic EU regulation generation, especially health and safety laws, incorrect thinking pervades, much to disadvantage ordinary citizens. This BIG bureaucracy believes it must keep all citizens utterly safe, mostly by restricting choice to only those items deemed safe. This happens regardless of such a restricted choice ensures your early demise. At least the EU bureaucrats have ensured you’ll be as healthy a corpse technically possible. 🙂
WAR ON TASTE BUDS!
https://food52.com/blog/12331-how-to-make-sauce-out-of-your-pan-s-brown-bits-a-k-a-fond
The Euro weeny fascists have been leading up to it for quite a while.
https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/acrylamide
PS – This reminds me I haven’t had my coffee yet today.
https://www.livescience.com/62177-california-coffee-cancer-warning.html
But who tucks them in , ties their shoes and wipes their arse, the Gov. better get busy! (SARC)
brown bread = dead!
NN
As Yonason notes, this nonsense is rampant in California, where almost everything is assumed to cause cancer. It appears that chemophobia is a badge of honor among leftist politicians and officials, so of course essential in EU.
How about a scary cup of coffee?
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5a/7d/2b/5a7d2b112460590df004b557ccdbfd95.jpg
“The reason: Proposition 65. It’s a California state law that requires businesses with 10 or more employees to provide reasonable warning about the use of any chemicals the state has decided could cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm. One of these chemicals is acrylamide, which a rodent study pinned as a possible carcinogen. It’s found in almost everything that’s cooked at a high temperature. And because a particularly litigious law firm recently sued the state for not properly warning residents about acrylamide in coffee, California is now on the verge of requiring all coffee shops and manufacturers to include a warning on the beverage that it may cause cancer.”
https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2018/04/04/in-california-everything-causes-cancer-so-labels-say/
This is the product of a bureaucracy without emocratic oversight.
“emocratic ” ????
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=emocratic
Had to look it up, not sure how it applies in this case.
But hey, great new word. Thanks 🙂
Sorry, it was a typo – I meant “Democratic”!
“Sorry, it was a typo – I meant “Democratic”!”
yep, I realised that 🙂
typos can sometimes be fun. 🙂
This is how we evolve by chance mutations.
[…] NoTricksZone covers regulatory madness on the color of bread and fries in the EU […]
Is it not true that in the USA, human life expectancy at birth has increased with the regular availability of potato fries?
When I was a kid, we made them at home — so regular they were not.
How many does a person have to eat until they cause cancer?
Not serious about that.
People differ. Education is better than regulation.
My mom drank coffee nearly every day of her 93 year adult life. I’m not going to worry about it. On the other hand, I will continue to worry about the Leftists trying to hijack my kitchen and my life.
My grandfather ate a toasted bacon sandwich wash down with 2 raw eggs most morning of his adult life, most evenings he would have at least 5 pints of strong stout.
For years the doctors told him he had to cut down on the drink and high cholesterol foods or he would be seriously ill.
Finally it got him and at the age of 86 he succumbed to a massive stroke when running for a bus. A short life for someone who survive a world war, being posted to the Far East, and Africa in the army, malaria, dengue fever, Spanish flu, and trench foot, then worked forty years as a contract construction worker. If only he didn’t smoke, he could have irritated us all for another 5 years maybe longer. 🙂
“If only he didn’t smoke, he could have irritated us all for another 5 years maybe longer.” – tom0mason
And maybe a LOT longer, since on that list of what he did it’s smoking that’s the worst, a known cause of heart disease and related problems. Impressive he lasted that long. Surviving the Spanish Flu alone is amazing.
My Dad was at Guadalcanal in WWII, and he also contracted malaria. Nasty disease. He also smoked, though quit when in his 50’s. Always held down at least 2 jobs, and continuously busy around the home when he wasn’t working. I can’t hold a candle to him.
Another comment straight to the spam bin?
Idiots, it looks like traditional German bread, I love pumpernickel.
The dark color of Pumpernickle bread is primarily from cocoa, coffee, and molasses, not the Maillard reaction.
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-pumpernickel-bread-recipe
The combination of regulations on CO2 emission and cooking temperatures would be enough to ban outdoor BBQs, also baking and brewing and wine making. Should they try that I foresee a revolution.
I must say Pierre how wonderfully civil the blog is today.
I wonder why?
I thinks she is busy else somewhere!
OT, wonderful picture from TH’s blog.
https://realclimatescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/2018-04-15162154_shadow.png
Chris H looking at wiki it appears Pumpernickel in the traditional method is actually baked at very low temperature (around 120C)and has no crispy crust. I enjoy it for a change but normally I make my own bread – a crusty white mix for the breadmaker and add 80 grs of various seeds -pumpkin kernels,linseeds, sunflower, and/or Quinoa per 600 gr loaf. The seeds make the bread have a brown color, particularly the Linseeds and the dark Quinoa.
The way that the EU is going will have more countries leave beside Britain. Looks like Hungary and and Italy might start the exodus leading to the collapse of the EU. Getting rid of Mutti (from the communist East) might help get a bit more democracy.
why is the eurlex screenshot a distortion of the actual regulation you quote?
the Commission regulation in your screenshot is COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 431/2014 (in force since 2014) on energy statistics, as regards the implementation of annual statistics on energy consumption in households.
What does this regulation have to do with bread colour?
Nobody knows what EU regulators have in mind, except for the regulators themselves. The point I’m trying to make is that EU regulation has become in many areas crazy. It wouldn’t surprise me that some regulators are looking at barbecue grills. It’s for the “safety of the citizens” after all.
I’m sorry, but the photo you posted at the bottom of your post is inherently flawed.
“nobody knows” is a strange consideration, given that the text of the regulation is freely available online, and given that it’s rather short, can be understood by the vast majority.
The regulation you refer to in that photo – COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 431/2014 – concerns energy statistics, as regards the implementation of annual statistics on energy consumption in households
What does this regulation have to do with the main topic of your post?
The part about “outdoor barbecues” is listed in the annex (sic!) listing the types of energy consumption sources, which are to be included in the Eurostat statistics.
All countries produce statistics on all sorts of matters, have a look at the US Census bureau for one.
“It wouldn’t surprise me that some regulators are looking at barbecue grills.” – I am sorry, but you have taken “bites” of the No 431/2014 regulation and put them entirely out of context, I do hope this was done ingenuously, and not attempting a “curved banana”-type of interpretation.
and you still haven’t answered my first question – why is the eurlex screenshot a distortion of the actual regulation you quote?
I have to concur, Ivana, it does seem to be about gathering statistics.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32014R0431&from=EN
thank you, Andy!
indeed, eurlex https://eur-lex.europa.eu/homepage.html?locale=en
is the official EU website where all EU legislation is stored and publicly available in all EU languages
(and very easily searchable as well)
thank you for posting both regulations – the 2014 statistics one and the 2017 acrylamide one.
I still fail to see the nexus between the two regulations.
“I still fail to see the nexus between the two regulations.”
Quite simple.
If they can count it, they will want to control it.
That is what bureaucrats do. 🙂
Andy, every country has a statistics office, and in order to have good quality statistics it has to write the list of things it includes in the statistics, right? you need data for analyses, for scientific research, how else can you collect good sets of data over time?
EU Acrylamide regulation, (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2017.304.01.0024.01.ENG ) mandates sampling and testing of foodstuff for public consumption. I wonder how that will that impact on the price, and the growing number of government employees EU citizen’s taxes have to pay for.
In general I can see Pierre’s point here, he demarcates the subject to a more general discussion on the overbearing EU regulation with the heading ‘Regulating living down to the detail‘ (the screenshot does not make this immediately obvious).
I believe Pierre is correctly pointing out that more unnecessary and onerous laws are coming out with little public awareness, just like the 2014 statue that mandates restriction on household appliances (including barbecues as set out in http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32014R0431 under the topic heading ‘Other End Uses’). These expanding base of regulations will make living in the EU more expensive, expand the government into every citizens lives, but will not make anyone’s life any better or safer.
Pierre, this is not the legislation you were looking for….. 😉
Its dated 2014 for a start.
The actual April 11th 2018 regulations probably does exist somewhere though.
This is probably it, if someone has the time to wade through it.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1523878141441&uri=CELEX:32017R2158
From that last pfd (English version)
https://s19.postimg.cc/a0uooqxk3/acrylamide.png
“Nobody knows what EU regulators have in mind, except for the regulators themselves.” – Pierre
I assume you are referring to their motives for writing the regulations, as opposed to the details of the regs themselves? If so, Ivana isn’t addressing what I thought was implied by your comment.
This falls into the category:
“If you don’t smoke, drink (alcohol) and avoid fries, you won’t live longer, it will just seem that way!”
As the old Irish line goes —
“Ah yes, he was the healthiest man I ever saw die of natural causes”
and also
https://cdn.quotesgram.com/small/75/32/136750906-528a257a74ea0dd3e8cf073142a9563f.jpg
This isn’t about protecting people from bad food, this is about controlling every inch of peoples lives.
Ole Jack
Precisely!
Actually,the cause of the diabetes epidemic is low thyroid. The TSH test used to regulate the amount of thyroid medication has been proved to be an invalid test. It measures only the amount of thyroid in the pituitary, not the amount in the rest of the body.
Before TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) was discovered, the amount of natural thyroid prescribed was based on symptomatic relief. Further, the artificial, all-T4 medications like Synthroid, were grandfathered in. This means they have never been tested for efficacy.
There is no correlation between TSH and the body’s Basal Metabolic Rate. Read Dr. Mark Starr’s Hypothyroidism Type 2.
Thyroid hormone regulates the activity of all organs including the pancreas and adrenals which are necessary for sugar regulation.
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