Brussels minces words

British gastronomy takes a lot of flack, particularly from the French, though that may have more to do with a millenia-old rivalry between England (then Britian, then the UK, though Scotland and [Northern] Ireland were dragged into it by the various stages of Union rather than any particular animosity toward the French) and France. Jacques Chirac once stated that British food was the second most boring in Europe (Finnish food took the gold in his eye, not that I would tell you what Finnish food is like). Britons mostly laugh this stuff off, since, as all good people of the Angloshere can tell you, at the end of the day the French are pretty well good for wine, cheese, bad politics, and surrender. But this time it seems, the Eldest Daughter of the Church has gone too far.

Among the many great things Great Britian has given the world (afternoon tea, english, kilts, etcetera), a well aged steak is right up there. Cattle carcasses need to be hung for 3 or 4 weeks for the flavour and texture to really come out (and let us not forget delicious mince). Thusly aged beef is a staple food throughout the British Isles, from Leinster to Jersey. But an EU regulation designed to protect eaters of the French staple (which, it must be said, is quite delicious, especially with a good claret or snifter of calvados, but that isn’t the point) steak tartare.

Fear over bacterial contamination led to the implementation 4 years ago of Regulation (EC) No 853/2004, buried on page 33 of a 60-page book of regulations, the revelant section of which reads as follows:

“When prepared from chilled meat, minced meat must be prepared:                                                               (ii) in the case of animal other than poultry, within no more than six days of their slaughter.”

Now, this rule has been on the books for years, and the UK was expected to apply for an exception, which would most likely be granted, because they’re been aging the meat for some now and have gotten pretty good at it (as evinced by the fact that they are still alive). However no such exception has been applied for. My guess would be that it rather slipped past the folks at the Commons, what with such things as the resignation and ship-jumping (conversion to Roman Catholicism) of long-serving and important Prime Minister, and that whole “war in the Middle East” thing.

Traditional farmers feel threatened, unsurprisingly, by the new rules (new in that they the UK is only now harmonizing). In Scotland, a huge producer of mine, where large numbers of Angus, Galloway and Highland (all traditionally hung for weeks before butchering) are farmed.

“Hanging meat for a long period has long been recognised as a good way to improve the texture, flavour and quality of the meat generally, and it’s vital to our beef industry that we continue to keep the quality of our product,” says Penny Johnson of the National Farmers Union in Scotland.

“It will impact the entire beef industry. The quality of our beef products, our steaks, our roasts, everything.”

Supporters of the bill say it will come out as a boon for the industry. Apparently producer of long-hung (that sounds dirty) beef are in peril. I’m not sure how that works, since it’s popular all over the British Isles, but we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. In any event, if the UK Food Agency can get an exception for heritage reasons, for which they have now applied, it could certainly raise prices, which would in fact help the farmers.

While this is all of terribly great interest to Anglophiles and British foodies, it does seem rather immeterial to the rest of the world. That, I dare say, is a mistake. This is a classic example of the danger of the transnational organization: regulations harmful to one member state passed for the good of other ones.

Britian here is perenially a victim of EU policy. Let us not forget that under the Treaty of Lisbon (ie. European Constitution Lite) the Queen, in right of the United Kingdom, is essentially a citizen of Europe (just writing that hurt me a little). Here Brussels is making a decision for the good of the French, the Dutch, the Swiss, etcetera, all of which are incidentally decidedly more europhile than is the UK. But that decision risks seriously hurting Britain. British traditional, identity, and economy is at stake on this one, all over how long Europeans are allowed to hang meat.