Pork Pie Court Case
 A long-running struggle to get a protected ‘Designation of Origin’ awarded to Melton Mowbray pies was expected to have received a decisive judgment at the beginning of December but the judge has now reserved his decision indefinitely. A favorable decision would have allowed a submission to the EU for the required award.
Melton Mowbray itself lies in Leicestershire in the English Midlands. The current petitions are being opposed mainly by Northern Foods plc, also a manufacturer of ‘Melton Mowbray’ pies but based in the Northern city of Leeds.
Northern Foods point firstly to the unusually large area for which protection is intended – an area of about 4500 km2 covering not just Melton Mowbray itself but also the counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, and secondly also to the fact that ‘Melton Mowbray’ pies have been made outside this area for over a century.
The proponents from Leicestershire claim that ‘foreign’ pies fail to use the correct ingredients and are not of the ‘correct’ shape. Astonishingly, their representative, Councillor Mathew O’Callaghan from Melton Mowbray, is actually a vegetarian. He is quoted as saying, ‘This is intellectual property, it’s part of our food heritage and it should belong to the people that made it.’
As expected, the Midlanders quote the various other products which have received protection, including Stilton cheese from the same general area. Unfortunately a related delicacy, the well-known Cornish Pasties, can receive no protection despite pasties in Cornwall being allegedly of a higher quality than elsewhere.
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