Berlin / DE. (nyt) European Union officials have offered to sit down with German bakers in an endeavor to defuse the latest uproar over proposed regulations from Brussels – the New York Times reports:
Echoing a recent furor over legislation dictating the size, shape and texture of fruits and vegetables, German bakers have criticized a proposal that would force a change in the salt content of their products.
The anger of the bakers – who condemned the bureaucrats in Brussels as «taste police» – seems to reflect a rising resentment of the European Union by a country that has long been among its biggest supporters.
The reaction from the German bakers, who are represented by a federal association and by regional lobbies, has been so intense that the European commissioner for health, Androulla Vassiliou, postponed making a decision this week on new regulations.
«Our aim is to provide consumers with better information so that they can make informed choices», a commission spokeswoman, Nina Papadoulaki, said. «The commission has no intentions of prohibiting any bread. We have decided to continue our talks with the stakeholders».
The bakers remained sceptical, saying they were convinced that Brussels would try to dictate changes to the recipes for their breads and the popular – and heavily salted – pretzel once the European Parliament elections were out of the way in June.
German heavy brown loaves, which are the mainstay of breakfasts and suppers here, contain 1,5 grams of salt for every 100 grams of flour. The European Commission had proposed reducing salt levels to 1,0 gram for every 100 grams of flour.
«What the E.U. is doing amounts to stupid interference», said Matthias Wiemers, chairman of the Central Association of German Bakeries, a lobby for 12’000 of the country´s 15’000 bakeries.
«The E.U. is trying to change the way we bake our bread, change the way we market it – and of all things, change the taste of our bread», Wiemers said. «And all this is taking place just months before we go to the polls to elect a new European Parliament. This is exactly the kind of interference and overregulation by Brussels that annoys citizens and even makes the E.U. unpopular».
Three months ago, European officials agreed to tear up 100 pages of legislation setting standards for the texture and appearance of 26 kinds of fruits and vegetables. Critics had frequently cited the regulations as evidence of the European Union´s meddling tendencies.
German bakers pointed out that this time around, the European Union was not only trying to dictate taste, but was undermining its goal of improving energy efficiency.
«So, we are being asked to change our recipes by reducing the level of salt. But that means we will have to bake the bread for longer and use more energy», a spokesman for Bavaria´s 2’500 bakeries, Roland Ried, said.
German bakers became annoyed in November when the commission decided it was time to end three years of wrangling over how to label food products, and if need be, issue health warnings.
Back in 2006, in what was viewed as a move to improve people´s health, by, for example, helping them cut back their intake of salt, sugar and saturated fats, the commission published a consultative paper about labeling of food products.
Labeling was «an important market tool which should be viewed as an integral part of communication between societal players», stated the document. As soon as it was published, the commission was inundated with suggestions and complaints from lobbies representing almost every aspect of the food industry (NY Times).
