Cornish pasty

After Brexit, anyone can make a Cornish pasty

The US wants first dibs on a regulation-free world of pasty production

The US is putting pressure on the UK to change protections around who can call their products – like Cornish – a particular name.

What it means: Under EU law, there are legal protections over the names of certain products. You can't call a Cornish Pasty a Cornish Pasty unless it's made in Cornwall; Parmesan is not Parmesan unless it's made in a particular region, near Parma in Italy... you get the point.

When the UK leaves the EU it has to decide if it keeps those protections. According to iNews, US lobbyists (a lobbyist is someone who put pressure on a politician to change the law) want that law to change so they can make and sell copycat products.

The US has never liked the rules, and the UK is trying to cosy up to it in anticipation of a new US/UK post-Brexit. But it could anger local producers – if a factory in the US could make a cheese almost exactly the same as Parmesan, for half the cost, that would put a centuries-old industry at risk.

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