All that nonsense about Sausages

So a few years back and a party some slightly tipsy civil servant made a joke along the lines of “soon Brussels will be telling us bananas are not bendy enough”. Out of that comment came one of the silliest and long standing ‘Euro Myths’ of all time.

OK – so its this simple –

Banana Fact 1:
We have a class system for Bananas. If we want to buy the best banana in Europe we buy a class A banana, this kind of banana will have a certain amount of curve, ripeness, smoothness of skin etc. If you want to call it a class A banana it has to look like a class A banana. Simple. If you have other kinds of bananas that is ok – they just can’t be called class A.

Second Banana fact: 

the UK don’t grow bananas

Third Banana fact: 

Bananas are imported into the EU from various countries, some of whom have a slightly less stringent approach to pesticides/fertilizers than us. Including things that can affect our health. So the EU has made a lot of trade agreements that protect consumers aiming to ensure those trading bananas with EU countries have not used harmful chemicals. Also occasionally we have a mild falling out with other countries and impose import/export sanctions on them (remember South Africa? Russia?). The EU operates some of that legislation for us. I used to make my own joke that there were only Ten Commandments but the EU directive on importing bananas covers 26 pages. However all of this is about protecting us as European consumers. It not about the bend in the banana it’s about not having binapacryl in a banana. (Disclaimer – not science here - I just chose a banned fertilizer than began with B). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binapacryl

And the sausage?
Well that was an episode of Yes Minister but yes the EU does have sausage legislation and it has meant that sausages sold in supermarkets must show how much meat is used in them. This labelling has helped us all make healthier food choices. This also helped the UK sell good quality British sausages abroad and made my live a lot easier when importing British sausages to Finland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzeDZtx3wUw

Before you vote: check out the facts at http://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35603388