CONGRATULATIONS to the French. They have decided to outlaw supermarkets throwing out food, in an effort to combat the unacceptable level of food waste, a problem we share here. Here we have supermarkets every day putting vast quantities of still-0edible food in the bin because it has reached its “sell by” date. At one time, much of this food would have been donated on its last day of date to some good cause, but through fear of prosecution, this seems not to happen any more.
In addition, we have been conditioned to regard dates as absolutely definitive, meaning that something is fine to buy and eat at 11.45PM on the 1st but a danger to health at 00.05 on the 2nd. We seem to be unaware that these dates take into account all possible hazards that might shorten the item’s lifespan, simply as a precaution against poor storage, transport an so on. Anyway, what happened to the common-sense sniff and taste test?
But who do we blame for this situation? The EU, of course. Ask anyone in the street who is to blame and they will tell you “tt’s the EU, with its health and safety regulations”. So if that is true, how can France, an enthusiastic member of the EU, decide to ban the discard of food that has reached its date and expect it to go instead to good causes – to be eaten, no less?
It is time that we recognised that a great many of the “EU” regulations we object to are not the fault of the EU, but of Whitehall civil servants who interpret recommendations as compulsory laws – a great wheeze for keeping themselves in a job, drawing up the details of how the scheme will work, distributing the information and setting up the means and workforce to police it. Just as they did with the “directive” on changing pounds and ounces to kilos and so on, which saw some traders fined or even jailed. Yet not so long ago, we learned this was not compulsory, only a recommendation!
Let’s stop and think a bit more when we hear the EU blamed, identify the true culprit and learn instead to make the EU work for our benefit as the French do.
P Davidson,
Gartcows Road, Falkirk.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel