EUROPE ENGAGES IN FOOD FIGHT OVER THE PURITY OF CHOCOLATE.Byline: Edmund L. Andrews The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times The European Parliament European Parliament, a branch of the governing body of the European Union (EU). It convenes on a monthly basis in Strasbourg, France; most meetings of the separate parliamentary committees are held in Brussels, Belgium, and its Secretariat is located in Luxembourg. erupted in angry recriminations Thursday after voting on an issue that has split western Europe Western Europe The countries of western Europe, especially those that are allied with the United States and Canada in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (established 1949 and usually known as NATO). for more than two decades: the Two Chocolates Policy. The vote left Britain, Ireland and Denmark seething seethe intr.v. seethed, seeth·ing, seethes 1. To churn and foam as if boiling. 2. a. To be in a state of turmoil or ferment: with rage, while the Belgians and French quietly gloated. The Germans, after siding with the French, were rumored to be wavering and thinking of defecting to the other side. So the fight is far from over. Eight European countries, led by Belgium and France, require that chocolate be made exclusively with cocoa butter. Seven others, led by Britain and Denmark, allow companies to mix in substitute vegetable fats like palm oil, a practice that Europe's purists consider abhorrent ab·hor·rent adj. 1. Disgusting, loathsome, or repellent. 2. Feeling repugnance or loathing. 3. Archaic Being strongly opposed. and threatening to their own chocolate industries. After months of fruitless negotiations, spurred by the drive to unify European standards, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly that ``chocolate'' is something different from what companies in Britain, Denmark and the other five countries have produced for decades. They also voted to force Britain and Ireland to rename their milk chocolate, arguing that it has too much milk by European standards. Caroline Jackson, a British member of the European Parliament Member of the European Parliament member n → Eurodéputé m , ended the day fuming fuming /fum·ing/ (fum´ing) emitting a visible vapor. fum·ing adj. Producing or emitting smoke or vapor, as for certain concentrated nitric, sulfuric, and hydrochloric acids. . ``Debates over food should be about safety, not about what makes a chocolate bar really chocolate,'' she said. ``This isn't radioactive.'' This isn't the first food fight Europe has seen. There was the feta fet·a n. A white semisoft cheese usually made of goat's or ewe's milk and often preserved in brine. [Modern Greek (turi) pheta, (cheese) slice, from Italian fetta, slice cheese brawl in 1996, in which Greece persuaded the European Union European Union (EU), name given since the ratification (Nov., 1993) of the Treaty of European Union, or Maastricht Treaty, to the European Community to block Denmark and other countries from using the word feta. There have been similar clashes over words like gouda, brie, sherry and brandy. But the chocolate war is on a scale all its own, dating back 24 years to the early days of the Common Market. And it remains a vivid reminder of the stubborn obstacles to unity that Europe still faces. To hear Belgians tell the story, the battle is over protecting ``real'' chocolate and a cherished national industry against cheap substitutes from multinational conglomerates like Cadbury-Schweppes, Nestle and Mars. ``My country is very famous for beer and chocolate,'' said Philippe de Coene, a Belgian socialist member of the European Parliament who has led the battle for pure-cocoa countries. ``Chocolate without vegetable fat is much more difficult and expensive to manufacture,'' he said. ``If you are faced with a chocolate that is much cheaper than yours, it will be much more difficult to compete.'' But to Britons and Danes, the fight is about free trade and common sense. ``We aren't talking about synthetic substitutes just to make cheaper chocolate,'' said Philip Whitehead, a British member of the European Parliament. ``Historically, this is the way the British make their chocolate.'' On Thursday the full European Parliament voted 306-112 in favor of the hard-line purists, but that does not mean the war has been won. The measure must still be approved by the European Council of Ministers. And then it will be up to the European Commission - administrators in Brussels who are strong champions of a free-chocolate ideology - to figure out how to enforce the rule. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion