Posted on 03/11/2005 3:18:51 PM PST by nickcarraway
WHAT is food? chewing gum and mineral water qualify, EU experts say - but not hallucinogenic mushrooms, live animals or an apple growing on a tree.
Animal feed also fails the European Union's "edibility" test as does any tasty plant ripening in the ground before it has been harvested. Cosmetics and psychotropic substances are also out, it says. The EU takes more than 70 words to say what it understands by food in comments sent to the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a joint body of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation, that sets food standards.
Chewing gum is one of the more bizarre products mentioned.
Advertisement: "(It) should be considered as food even if only a part ... is actually ingested by the consumer," the text reads.
However, the EU recognises that in some cases, the characteristics of a given chewing gum impose that it be regulated as medicine.
With members from more than 160 countries, Codex sets non-binding recommendations that are often used in international trade disputes, including World Trade Organisation negotiations.
This is the EU's second attempt this month to try to work out food definitions.
A week ago, the EU's executive invited European consumers to write in their thousands to an internet site to say what they thought the flavour, colour and tenderness of veal should be.
I'm sorry, is it EU or FU officials?
Is a "boffin" anything like a "poofter"?
Is this real?
Yes.
Oh, wait, never mind. ;')
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