Food register fears

Brian Wilson recently wrote (Perspective, 13 October) “...my constituency MSP issued a press release claiming the very existence of Stornoway black pudding was threatened by ‘Westminster’s

Brexit shambles’. How can they expect to be taken seriously on issues of significance amidst this litany of doom. It is becoming a case of the boy who cried black pudding.”

Stornoway black pudding was registered as a protected geographical indication under European regulation 510/2006, now replaced by regulation No 1151. When or if the UK leaves the EU, the regulation will cease to be law in this country. Unless an equivalent UK scheme is fully in place by 29 March, 2019, legal protection of all protected geographic indications and protected designations of origin will cease in the UK.

And because under the EU regulation third country PGIS and PDOS can be registered at EU level only for “products of third countries that are protected in the Union under an international agreement to which the Union is a contracting party” Uk-based PGIS and PDOS will not be able to be registered in the EU unless there is an EU/UK agreement covering them and the required equivalent UK national scheme has been established.

The geese that saved Rome needed to be listened to.

JAMES MCLEAN Blinkbonny Terrace, Edinburgh