This is catastrophic news for the millions of people who love British marmalade. The announcement read “British marmalades may need to be re-labelled under a post-Brexit food deal”. The only good new in this notice is that it implies there will be a ”Post-Brexit”, which almost makes up for the news about marmalade!!!!!!!!!!
British marmalade is traditionally made with bitter Seville oranges. Marmalade has long been a quintessential British preserve, with some recipes handed down over multiple generations. But it has emerged that jars of marmalade could look a little different on shop shelves under the U.K. government’s planned EU food deal.
The breakfast favourite will have to be sold as “citrus marmalade” if the agreement goes ahead. Britain will re-adopt new EU food regulations in a bid to boost trade and reduce red tape for British exporters. The name change is required because Brussels is relaxing its labelling rules, widening the legal definition of marmalade across Europe for the first time.
This is just my opinion, but Brussel’s fascination with minute detail, over substantive decisions, is one of the reasons everyone in Europe hates the European Government – surely they have better things to do? It reminds me of when they spent almost three years debating the size of the “Standard” European condom! No further comment necessary!
Decades-old European regulations, incorporated into U.K. law before Brexit, mean that only preserves made from citrus fruits can be sold as “marmalade” in shops, with other kinds of fruit spread named “jam”, or the equivalent terms in other languages. This was created by British lobbying in the 1970s for a special commercial status for marmalade cut from bitter Seville oranges, but the naming rule laid a linguistic minefield that has been a source of friction with food regulators around Europe ever since.
In 2004, the EU agreed to relax the rule for producers selling fruity wares at farmers’ markets in Austria and Germany. It has continued to flummox consumers in countries such as Spain and Italy, where “mermelada” and “marmellata” respectively are commonly used for spreads made from other kinds of fruit, such as plums and figs – a German member of the European Parliament, who had been pushing for a change after Brexit, said that the naming rules were “contrary to German linguistic tradition”.
Now Brussels has updated its rules after the UK’s departure, allowing all EU countries to permit non-citrus spreads to be marketed as “marmalade”. However, in line with international norms, citrus-based conserves will need to be distinguished as a separate type of product and will have to be sold using the new legal name “citrus marmalade”. May I suggest here that “Proper Marmalade” would be a much better name!!
The new name, citrus marmalade, was already set to take effect in Northern Ireland this summer, under the “2023 Windsor framework” deal that sees it align with EU food laws automatically. But the UK government has now revealed the updated marmalade decree is among 76 new EU food-related laws that will apply in England, Wales and Scotland too, once the overall food deal is agreed.
A timescale for the rule change in Britain is also yet to be confirmed, and it is unclear whether the updated rules will need to be in force before or after mid-2027, when Labour ministers hope the wider agreement will come into effect.
However, it is not clear whether regulators will allow products, with names like “strawberry marmalade”, to be sold in British supermarkets. This is not currently planned in Northern Ireland, under the legislation delivering the changes.
A previous assessment by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), responsible for labelling rules in England, found such a rule change “could be confusing for U.K. consumers”.
The Department declined to specify whether it planned to relax labelling rules in this way, but said it was in touch with businesses affected by the new rules and would consider alignment “where it makes sense to do so”.
The extent to which consumers will notice a difference on shop shelves is not exactly clear. The new rules say product descriptions containing the name of a citrus fruit, such as “lemon marmalade”, will be allowed as an alternative. I still think “Proper Marmalade” is a far better solution!!
It remains to be seen whether the long arm of jam law will change the perception of marmalade in the British imagination. Dalemain Mansion in Cumbria, which has hosted the World Marmalade Awards since 2005, said it plans to keep its competition reserved to citrus-based spreads, irrespective of whether the naming rules are relaxed in the UK. Beatrice McCosh, director of the awards, said the competition aimed to set the bar for “rock solid British standard marmalade, the type which has been eaten for centuries from Elizabeth I to James Bond”. Good for her!!
As my readers will know by now, I think Brexit was a terrible, stupid mistake, and a fraud perpetrated by Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage for their own political ambitions. However, the bureaucrats in Brussels often give me pause to reconsider that opinion.
The invention (or at least the commercial popularisation) of orange marmalade is usually credited to Janet Keiller of Dundee in the late 18th century.
According to the traditional story, she used a shipment of bitter Seville oranges that her husband, James Keiller, had bought cheaply. Instead of them going to waste, she turned them into a preserved spread—creating what became Dundee marmalade.
Their family business, Keiller’s Marmalade, went on to become world-famous and helped establish Dundee as the historic home of marmalade.
Worth noting: fruit preserves existed long before this, but the Keillers are credited with developing the distinctive bitter orange marmalade we know today and producing it commercially.