Chip shop owners are being encouraged to produce thicker versions because they contain fewer calories and less fat.'Encouraged' now. Forced later?
The traditional British chip is already thicker - and therefore healthier - than the French fries served by big fast-food chains.Which lead to this extraordinary 'No, not us, target them too!' demand:
Douglas Roxburgh, president of the National Federation of Fish Fryers, described the move as 'totally unfair'.No, no, no, no! It should be no bloody business of the government and their useless quango what size, thickness or even flavour the nation's chips are!
'They should be concentrating on fast food outlets who make the thin French fries, not the traditional independent chip shop,' he said.
'We will be opposing this as much as we can until they make it a level playing field and start asking McDonald's, KFC and Burger King to change their chip sizes too.'Don't think you can appease this ravening beast, Douglas, by throwing your competitors off the sledge. When you run out of competitors, it'll happily gobble you up too.
The next step after government-mandated chips will be smaller portions of government-mandated chips. The next step after that will be no chips...
And it should come as no surprise that this is the latest scheme to come from the FSA:
The FSA scheme will cover Cambridgeshire, Greater Manchester and Northern Ireland by the end of this month. Officials will visit 80 chip shops to examine how much fat is in their chips and offer advice.There's a nice little earner for some..
Too true.
ReplyDeleteThe breweries did the same thing by crying "Supermarkets!" and look where they are now.
"Want vinegar with those fat-reduced chips? Nah, sorry, we can't put **** on them as well. After the new law came in we did keep a **** cellar under the counter for a while, but then they got tough and started watching the Chippy. Still, Free Country."
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's a cunning plan to entice the wilfully unemployed back to work in the run-up to the election - look out for recruitment ads for 'chip samplers' in a jobcentre near you.
ReplyDelete'and offer advice.'
ReplyDeleteNice little place you have here, shame if anything were to happen to it...
and anyone who thinks the Conservatives will be better should read Lansley's Green Paper.
ReplyDeleteThicker chips take longer to cook. That'll slow down the shop's turnover and increase cooking costs per unit, customers will get fed up of waiting and leave, and chip shop owners will join publicans in the dole queue.
ReplyDeleteSeems to be the Labour plan. A future free of all of us.
Can't see Macdonalds caving in on this one.
ReplyDelete"The breweries did the same thing by crying "Supermarkets!" and look where they are now."
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
"Still, Free Country."
Ahhh, if only...
"...look out for recruitment ads for 'chip samplers' in a jobcentre near you."
That might just be the one to get a few off them off the sofa and out from behind the XBox.
Hell, I might apply!
"Nice little place you have here, shame if anything were to happen to it..."
That does seem to be the implicit message behind a lot of government advice...
"and anyone who thinks the Conservatives will be better should read Lansley's Green Paper."
ReplyDeleteOh, I've absolutely no illusions on that score.
"...and chip shop owners will join publicans in the dole queue.
Seems to be the Labour plan."
Tough on employment, tough on the causes of employment!
"Can't see Macdonalds caving in on this one."
No, can't see the government going for them either. If, however, they get their way with the smaller shops, they may well try...