OT: Eurosausages - spot the similarity!

[NY]

The EU have been copying ideas from Yes Minister:

UK sausage makers face EU export ban

and

Minister: EU directives and Euro Sausage

[Roger Hayter]

Surely we could sell them as flavoured bread novelties, as long as we substituted proper meat for the recovered animal scrapings currently used.

More power to the EU in this respect.

[Max Demian]

Let them eat salami/Bratwürste/Wieners &c.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The reciprocity clauses mean we can also now ban imports of Spanish chorizo, French saucisson and a nearly all salamis, wursts and Andouilettes

Since I have never seen a British sausage abroad, but continental sausages are freely available in most British supermarkets, it does rather look like a total own goal, of the sort we have come to expect from the EU

[nightjar]

It appears to be the raw meat bit that is important, rather than, with the Yes Minister episode, the composition. Continental sausages are general preserved or pre-cooked, which kills bacteria. Raw meat products can carry animal diseases between countries.

[NY]

Yes, "le saucisson anglais" or "der Englischer Wurst", as Jim Hacker, Sir Humphrey Appleby and Bernard Woolley proposed calling them. "Emulsified high-fat offal tube" doesn't have quite the same ring to it ;-)

Are we in the UK unusual in producing and selling sausages that are cooked from raw, rather than being sold preserved/pre-cooked? What about Toulouse sausage?

Would freezing the sausages for transport to mainland Europe avoid the restrictions by killing animal diseases? Does the same problem exist with

*any* uncooked meat, or is it worst (würst?) with sausages?

Now we need to be strong enough to ban import of US chlorine-washed chicken without provoking US retaliation.

[Chris Hogg]

There was a chap on our local TV last night who normally exported uncooked English sausage to the rest of the EU, said he was now intending to freeze them and export them in that form. I don't see that freezing them would stop the transmission of disease, though. AIUI frozen bacteria just come back to life when thawed out.

Nowt wrong with chlorine-washed chicken per se. After all, most of us drink chlorine-washed water, and I doubt that the chicken meat actually tastes of chlorine. It's the conditions the chickens are raised in that are the problem. Whether banning c-wc would actually force the chicken farmers to improve those conditions, I don't know, but somehow I doubt it.

[alan_m]

The solution is to chlorine wash our sausages.

[Tim Streater]

We also have been eating chlorine washed veg from other EU countries. Perhaps we can ban those now.

I don't see why this need be a problem at all. We simply tell the yanks that they can export chicken to us, but that it must be raised according to certain standards that we specify, and that we wish to station inspectors in the US to police this. That would probably push teh price of the chicken up and they might not want to bother.

Stationing inspectors in other countries to inspect goods for export is not a novel or unusual procedure, BTW. This is something that already happens in some circs. It means that the inspector certifies the goods as being according to standard, the goods are then sealed and exported and are not held up for inspection at the receiving country.

[Dave Plowman (News]

I'd guess it's escaped your notice that there is chlorine in UK water too.

[NY]

As someone said up-thread, it isn't the fact that the chicken may have tiny traces of chlorine; it's the fact that chlorine treatment is even necessary - which points to poor conditions in the chickens' living conditions. *That* is the reason why we should refuse it: that the chickens need chlorine-washing before they are considered safe to eat. Has the US introduced similar rules about battery hens as the EU and England have?

[T i m]

<snip>

Most meat needs cooking to make it safe to eat (and edible to humans).

And to give it flavour, we often puts herbs (plants) and spices (plants) on it and have more plant based sauces with it (tomato, soy, cranberry, mint, apple etc). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Tim Streater]

Thass my point, Dave. In and of itself, the chlorine is unlikely to be the problem. As others have already pointed out, it's the chickens' conditions of employment that are the issue.

Trade Unions for chickens, thass wot we need!

[T i m]

<snip>

We have one, it's call 'Veganism' where we give all animals the right to live their lives free of our exploitation.

Cheers, T i m

[Fredxx]

That's my take too.

[Dave Plowman (News]

Does explain why so many here were pleased to see the (near) end of unions. ;-)

[Andrew]

So, never been to Costa Del Sol and seen all the "English Fry up" cafes ?