I can't believe I'm writing this, but apparently UK food outlets and restaurants could soon be forced to remove home-made Yorkshire puddings from their menus if a campaign to seek special EU protection for the food product is successful.
According to patent and trade mark firm Withers & Rogers LLP, if the campaign is successful only puddings made in Yorkshire and Humberside will be allowed to be described as Yorkshire puddings as they will have protected geographic status (a la Parma ham and Champagne).
What else could be at stake? Lancashire hotpot, Bakewell tart, Cornish pasties... Answers on a postcard please.
Does your pizza Napoletana meet EU regs? If not, you could be in breach of European laws! Be afraid, be very afraid.
This Yorkshire pudding copyright business is lunacy. Unless I'm wrong, it's flour, eggs and milk beaten together and whacked in the oven, isn't it? Will the milk now need to come from a herd on the Dales? And will only eggs from Harrogate hens suffice?
I made Welsh cakes a few months ago - in my mum's kitchen in Berkshire. Yikes. Can I expect to be flung into jail any day now?
But can you call a Lancashire hotpot a Lancashire hotpot if the main ingredient - lamb - is not from the area, let alone the UK?
Apparently, on Watchdog this evening they are investigating this in ready-made meal companies - is it a genuine mistake or a way of keeping costs down and profits up?
Does the rabbit in Welsh rabbit have to come from Wales? ;O)