Sunday lunches will never be the same after EU officials ruled Yorkshire Pud can no longer be called by its historic name – because the ingredients can be bought and mixed up anywhere.
The puddings can still be sold in shops – but under EU regulatio
n (EEC) No. 0104/05 they cannot be labelled as Yorkshire Pudding from April 2006. The move has been greeted with fury in Yorkshire where campaigners are threatening to field a Great British Yorkshire Pudding Party candidate in the next Euro elections.
Producers could follow the lead of the Wensleydale Creamery in seeking a European-wide quality mark restricting use of the name to local producers using local ingredients.
But Brussels suggested such a move would be unlikely to succeed in this case because of doubts that Yorkshire Pudding is even a British recipe. The EC Milk, Fats, Flour, and
Oil Committee has ruled Yorkshire Pud must be sold as
"puff batter snacks" under the Protection of Geographical Indications of Origin for Foodstuffs policy.
Simon Thackray, inventor of the Great Yorkshire Pudding Boat Race, held at his alternative arts venue The Shed
at Brawby, near Malton, branded the ruling "outrageous".
"If this idea is not thrown out we will field a Yorkshire Pudding Party candidate at the next Euro-elections and I may very well stand myself."
But an EU spokesman said that although the pudding had taken its name from Yorkshire, other counties in the UK had laid claim to its invention, as had other EU states, including France.
Senior official at the Milk, Fats, Flour, and Oil Committee Sonpois Avdril said: "The protection of geographical indications is an integral part of the EU's quality policy."
mark.branagan@ypn.co.uk
