What is local?
This is a real bugbear of mine and the longer we're in the 'food business', the more it irks me. I love nothing better than eating from a menu where the provenance is defined - whether the animals have been reared organically, free range, chemical free or intensive; the vegetables come from wherever; even milk and cream. I admire the many dining establishments who genuinely try to use as many as they can source & afford.
Unfortunately when I see words like 'local' I tend to see red.
Local is like artisan. Who's applying & indeed checking the definition?
A few years ago, I enjoyed a weekend in Killarney, and as I was on a 'weekend off' decided to forego the full Irish breakfast in favour of the cold meat plate consisting of local meats. Foolishly I assumed these meats would have been sourced in Co. Kerry or at most West Cork, but no, they had been sourced on the island of Ireland! To an American who is accustomed to vast distances, and the notion that Ireland can be seen in 3 days, then that would definitely have been local. To the rest of us, probably not so and yet, it is so officially.
I've been reading a fascinating Guidance Note No. 29 issued by Food Safety Authority of Ireland (F.S.A.I.) and local is: 'Within a 100 km of the manufacturing/food service establishment (this limit is aligned with the sale and supply limit set in other national rules covering an activity which is ‘marginal, localised and restricted’, see S.I. No. 168 of 2012 and S.I. No. 340 of 2010)'.
The Guidance Note is good but who's enforcing it? That is the real question I guess.
Unfortunately when I see words like 'local' I tend to see red.
Local is like artisan. Who's applying & indeed checking the definition?
A few years ago, I enjoyed a weekend in Killarney, and as I was on a 'weekend off' decided to forego the full Irish breakfast in favour of the cold meat plate consisting of local meats. Foolishly I assumed these meats would have been sourced in Co. Kerry or at most West Cork, but no, they had been sourced on the island of Ireland! To an American who is accustomed to vast distances, and the notion that Ireland can be seen in 3 days, then that would definitely have been local. To the rest of us, probably not so and yet, it is so officially.
I've been reading a fascinating Guidance Note No. 29 issued by Food Safety Authority of Ireland (F.S.A.I.) and local is: 'Within a 100 km of the manufacturing/food service establishment (this limit is aligned with the sale and supply limit set in other national rules covering an activity which is ‘marginal, localised and restricted’, see S.I. No. 168 of 2012 and S.I. No. 340 of 2010)'.
The Guidance Note is good but who's enforcing it? That is the real question I guess.
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