After the final banning of the ‘cheese sounding‘ in the EU, the time has come for the ‘meat sounding‘. The evocation of meaty names on laboratory meats
e
products of other nature could be banned, thanks to a stance taken by the European Parliament.
‘Meat sounding’
, form and substance
Name and noumenon, form and substance. Why call ‘meat‘ – or ‘rib‘, ‘steak‘, ‘roast‘, ‘sausage‘, ‘stew‘, ‘salami‘, ‘bresaola‘ – products that have nothing to do with meat? It is an Orwellian mechanism, replacing words and concepts, totally meaningless. As well as offensive to the dignity of animals, whose slaughter and dissection is invoked in the public imagination for the sole purpose of selling cheap substitute products at a high price.
Forgery met genetic engineering-with theImpossible Burger to GMO blood – and big finance driving Big Food. So too is Nestlé, first giant among the ‘10 big sisters of food‘
, is now about to launch in Europe its bloody ‘
Garden Gourmet Incredible Burger
‘. The market is growing and profitable, so many people throw themselves into it without often paying attention to, among other things, the nutritional qualities Of products.
Paolo De Castro
– the Italian MEP who has always been most active in protecting the Italian agrifood supply chain
Italian – has repeatedly made efforts
To ensure the accuracy of consumer information. Even in relation to products that are presented as ‘alternativesto’ Totally different foods. And in the absence of matches By a completely useless commissioner , Paolo De Castro intervened as best suits the European legislator. With a special amendment to the regulatory proposal updating the Common Market Organization, CMO. (1)
Form and substance must coincide. In dairy products and cheeses (which are not always vegetarian, remember), as in fish and eggs, and in meats. For the ecology of mind (Gregory Bateson) and society. Otherwise, it will only complicate labels with descriptive designations That add to the confusion. Instead of communicating clearly and concisely what really matters, on vegetarian and vegan products. So, what does this new product correspond to with respect to the individual’s daily nutritional needs? (2)
Meats, meat products and meat preparations. The legal designations proposed in the new CMO
On 1.4.19, the Parliament’s AGRI Committee adopted the amendment signed by Mr. Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy) and Mr. Nuno Melo (EPP, Portugal). In the compromise text crafted by Éric Andrieu (S&D, France), rapporteur on the proposed CMO reform. Text to follow.
‘
Meats, meat products and meat preparations
For the purposes of this Part of this Annex, by “
meat
” means the edible parts of the animals referred to in Sections 1.2 to 1.8 of Annex I of Regulation (EC) 853/2004, including blood.
The terms and names related to meat covered by Article 17 of Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011 and which are currently used for meat and meat cuts should be reserved exclusively for the edible parts of animals.
For “
meat preparations
“
means fresh meat, including meat that has been reduced to fragments, to which food, seasonings or additives have been added, or that has undergone processes that do not alter the internal structure of the muscle fibers of the meat sufficiently to fresh meat to be discarded.
For “
meat products
“
means processed products resulting from the processing of meat or the further processing of such processed products so that the cutting surface shows that the product no longer has the characteristics of fresh meat.
The names Which fall under Article 17 of Regulation (EU) no. 1169/2011, currently used for meat products and meat preparations, are reserved exclusively for products containing meat. These designations include, for example:
– steak,
– sausage,
– escalope,
– burger,
– burgers.
The [nomi dei] products and cuts of
poultry
defined in Regulation (EU) no. 543/2008, laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation (EU) No. 1234/2007 regarding marketing standards for poultry meat, are reserved exclusively for edible parts of animals and products containing poultry meat.”
‘
Ad maiora’
The reform will go to a vote of the coming Assembly, following the May elections in which unfortunately Paolo De Castro is not participating. After the masochistic choice, by Nicola Zingaretti, to include Carlo Calenda as the leading candidate. He who declares himself ‘European’ after violating the most basic rules that have been in place in Europe for decades, when he was minister of economic development that moreover escaped the news. (3)
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) See reg. EU 1308/2013
(2) Paradoxically, the role of individual foods in the diet can be easily understood when it comes to traditional foods that have been classified in nutritional guidelines for decades. It is conversely a conundrum on innovative, if appreciable, products because the composition and nutritional profile of each serving can vary significantly in energy and macro-nutrient intakes
(3) The writer has in vain Reported to the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Rome Carlo Calenda, along with Paolo Gentiloni, Maurizio Martina, etc. For abuse of office and ideological misrepresentation in public records, in relation to the legislative decree on the seat of the plant (Leg. 145/17) and to ministerial decrees on the origin of wheat and semolina in pasta, paddy rice in rice, and tomatoes in canned goods. Decrees that were presented emphatically, under various election rounds, unless they all turned out to be unconstitutional, waste paper. Since their own self-styled promoters had deliberately omitted the due notifications to Brussels which – as even the walls (and mules) know – since 1983 have constituted the ‘
conditio sine qua non’
for the applicability of national technical standards
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
