Deeply puzzled by quality cues on food packaging in the UK. Not to say disturbed.
It would seem that "Made in Britian" accompanied by a little Union Jack flag is a very popular way of flagging quality (excuse the pun). The word "proud" often appears as well - as in "produced with pride".
I can understand that all the buzz about carbon footprint has embedded itself into the UK popular consicousness, if that is what you can call it, over the past few years.
I still find the presence of the Union Jack baffling. Firstly, it implies that everything from "the Continent" (that strange place also referred to as Europe) can't be as good. Hm. Patently not the case as anyone who has been to a German or French market (no, they don't call them farmers markets there) can testify.
Secondly, it smacks worringly of a nasty form of xenophobia - limited in outlook, suspicious of anything new, provincial. Especially when combined with the word "proud".
Nationalism plus a "back to the soil" movement - wasn't that exactly the groundswell that fed extremism in the 1930s?
As an additional aside - I thought the Union Jack had been replaced in terms of popuarity by the Welsh flag, the Saltire, to reflect regional identities.....
What's your view on the Union Jack/ buy British revival on food packaging? Does it make you believe in the quality more? Do tell, as Nancy Mitford might have said.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It’s simple. A little encouragement to go ‘local’ and take pride in the food you’re growing, buying, preparing and eating.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I see, our European counterparts do it all the time, it’s just that they don’t require the same level of encouragement/education - in the form of a little national flag. Which, by the way, can easily be found in the form of a Saltire and Y Ddraig Goch. But rarely will St. Georges Cross be found, as it’s often considered too nationalistic!
The Union flag also suffers from this association with the far-right and reclaiming it and displaying it more readily will only help disassociate it from any lingering far-right connotations.
By and large the British have had decades of not taking pride in their food and there are few here that would deny that the rest of Europe, particularly the Italians, do good great food that they justifiably take pride in.
And, this lack of pride in our own food may well account for why the British are way ahead in trying and accepting new things, much more so than our European friends – particularly the Italians.
The British national dish (allegedly) is Indian; There’s a Chinese takeaway in every high Street – not to mention two or three US styled burger bars, a pizza place and a (Turkish or Greek) kebab outlet; A sample of ‘Top Ten’ restaurant lists suggest that on average 4 out of 5 restaurants are not British; Only 20% (my guess) of supermarket prepared foods are British. There’s a notable increase in the popularity of Japanese style food. All of which is hardly an indication of xenophobic behaviour, being limited in outlook and suspicious of anything new.
I’d also add that in my experience, when it comes to the basic ingredients of meats and vegetables, British produce IS often better.
Being British, I’m much more concerned by the national hunger to consume magazines that are nothing more than photograph albums of people we’ve never met, and to obstruct and dominate public spaces with pushchairs the size of a small 4x4 SUV.
Thanks for your comment, very interesting, especially about people simply treating food mags like photo albums. I am surprised by what you say about your experience on the superiority of British produce. I wonder if perception, prejudice and objectivity go hand in hand? I doubt it....being a sceptic, a natural reaction. I also think that there is a difference between restaurants in the UK and home cooking...check out what the 4 top stockpiled foods were recently...didn't see basmati rice, but did see corned beef.
ReplyDelete