Cornish pasties face threat from American imports

BRITISH classics such as Cornish pasties and Cumberland sausages could be threatened by imports of foreign imitations under a new European Union trade deal.

Geraint Davies, a Labour MP, warned that an agreement between the EU, Canada and the US could weaken existing laws that protect regional specialities from being mimicked.

He said the UK could be flooded by cheap, non-authentic products that could “bind governments for 20 years”,

The Sun reported. Mr Davies tabled a Bill in the House of Commons earlier this year to protect certain foods. It came after Germany warned that the EU would not be able to uphold laws protecting regional foods under the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Christian Schmidt, the German agriculture minister, said that protections for regional specialities, ranging from Cornwall’s famous meat pastry to Germany’s Black Forest ham, might have to be dropped as the price for such a deal.

“If we want to take advantage of the opportunities of free trade with the huge American market, we can no longer have every type of sausage and cheese each protected as a speciality,” he told Spiegel magazine at the time.

Under EU law, protected regional specialities can only be sold under their traditional names if they were actually made in the region. Around 60 British products are on the EU’s protected status list of 1,100 foods, alongside delicacies such as Parmesan and feta cheeses, prosciutto and Black Forest hams.

Stilton cheese and Melton Mowbray pork pie are among British products protected by the EU but are not considered at risk because they are not imitated by American food producers.

The legal protections are enforced in Europe but not in America where immigrants such as Cornish copper miners or Bavarian farmers have taken European food traditions such as the Cornish pasty or Black Forest ham and made them their own.