When we lived in Glasgow in the early 90’s I read a disturbing news report regarding Walls Ice cream. The thrust of the report was that notwithstanding that the product was called ice cream, British food regulations of the day did not actually require product labeled as such to contain any dairy fat. The article also reported that Walls, in addition to being the largest ‘ice cream’ producer in Britain, was also the largest sausage producer. Readers were left to draw their own conclusions. We did ….. and we gave our custom to Mackies … a real dairy we could visit in person.
Yes, indeed... standing out against Wall's ice cream probably constituted art and culture in Glasgow in those days (though I hear that Glaswegians have moved upmarket of late and that razor gangs these days fight with electric shavers...)
The EU insists on common and verified trade descriptions. Since British ice cream came nowhere close to the standard and ingredients of continental ice cream, the British were asked to come up with some other name.
The British won't accept even metric measurements and the fuss about "interference" from (here all make the sign of the cross) "Europe" in the naming and quality of ice cream was to be expected. In the end, the decision was, with much paraphrasing, that the British could keep calling their stuff ice cream provided they didn't try foisting it off on us here on the continent.
The British have since left the European Union. I suspect their offence over ice cream became too much for them.
though I hear that Glaswegians have moved upmarket of late and that razor gangs these days fight with electric shavers... and waterpik’s 😉
I agree. In fact last year I did my first long tour and called it The Great Big Ice Cream Tour. From Santander to Athens over 83 days and 51 ice creams. I initially blogged it on CrazyGuy but it was transferred to this site.
Since this post has been revisited, we would like to add that we spent the last Zlotys (poland) on Beer and Ice Cream
Racpat
Not so much Wall's as Unilever, that red heart, I'm afraid - a giant of European mass production. Wall's used to be dreadful stuff when it was British. It's hardly cordon bleu now but it couldn't be worse than then. Still, when it's hot and needs must... yes, even Wall's!
1 year ago