New Allergen Laws Cause Confusion!!

Dear oh dear..........does this government not think we can walk down the road avoiding the cracks in the pavement??............recently on the newsletter, we highlighted Nottingham City's fumbling around the Late Night Levy.......(lets get all the pubs outside the city centre to pay for policing in the city centre, whilst the pubs actually in the city centre don't pay for it!)

Next on the list is central government misguided attempt to implement a complicated allergen law......derived from the powers that be in sunny Brussels...........so here we go......none of the following is made up.....you couldn't make it up anyway.....no one would believe you!!

The basic premise is that many European folk are allergic to one or more of 14 principle allergens...........therefore, if they dare to go into any type of restaurant or purchase any food every product must have either clear lableing and/or the staff have access to a compendium of information on every food and drink item sold by that business identifying any allergens in every food product....eg a pint of Harvest Pale and Lasagne, salad, chips and garlic bread......read it again before continuing.

This law will be implemented on 13 December 2014............OH YES right in the middle of the busiest trading point of the year.......WHOEVER made that decision should have their face on the front page of every newspaper in western Europe.

UKIP State..."throw it out with the beer slops!!" and we couldn't possible comment!
But maybe CAMRA should be commenting on the relevance to micro brewed ales and the added costs to brewers.

Here at the Lion we have a pretty simple food menu....as you know...The Rock n Roll Burger Menu.........so whats the problem......well even for that small menu we have to break down every ingredient in every dish and identify and record any possible allergen.....then produce a document that could be shown to a worried customer..........BUT hey don't forget this also includes all the special sauces that go with the burgers.......all the desserts.......coffee.......the  specialty nuts and crisps......all drinks especially the beautiful bespoke real ales and hand made ciders.......oh and don't forget the Friday buffet and team food for the jazz and darts folk..........this is bureaucracy gone absolutely crazy........

So how is it going to be policed.......it is a trading standards issue not food hygiene...............in 12 years at the Lion....you can count the number of people who have mentioned food allergies on one hand and that has always been gluten.........a prize for the first person to email in with all 14 allergens listed....andrewcrawford@pubpeople.com First three in win a cup of smokey nuts and a pint of Harvest Pale!!

Why can't the government leave our industry alone for a couple of years......meddle meddle meddle.....lets make up a job......But leave the NHS in total and utter crisis..............ELECTION YEAR is 2015!

Oh and just to end it, do you really think the French, Spanish, Greeks or Italians will take one jot of notice......unlikely......but our Civil Servants have a job to do and boy will they do the job properly............So, on December 13th, if you want to cause mayhem get down to your local Chinese takeaway ask for all the allergen info.....in Mandarin........oh yes....must all be in relevant languages....

See you down the Lion at tea time for a gluten free pork pie and a bloody good pint!!

Andrew Crawford
Operations Director
Pub People Company

Rant over!!......excellent ale and cider choice down here this weekend, along with top live local bands, Fri, Sat and Sun
CAMRA members very welcome, with 15p per pint off real ales and ciders