One rationale used to sell the idea of Brexit to the British voters was to reclaim UK sovereignty, but it seems, from this report on The Telegraph, that it is not going to happen.

The EU is currently revising and simplifying their 'breakfast directives', which regulate the quality and contents of breakfast foods. One of the directives applies to jam (fruit preserves), and the update will require higher fruit content than is currently the norm in Britain. If UK jam manufacturers want to continue exporting to EU markets, they will have to change their recipes to include more fruit.

This reminds me of the "sausage scandal" shortly after the UK joined the EU. There was an imminent threat of British sausages being made illegal (even in Britain) due to insufficient meat content. If I remember correctly the threat was averted by negotiating a relaxation of the rules. That negotiated settlement is now defunct; there are also new problems regarding the export of 'chilled meat preparations', e.g. sausage and minced meat, to the UK, from the start of 2021.

Despite having been born and grown up in the UK, I have no patriotic or emotional attachment to most British food and drink products:

• British beer is vastly inferior to that from Germany, Belgium and the Czech Republic;
• German and French jams are far superior to those from the UK, although, sadly, Germans don't seem to make marmalade, and call jam marmalade;
• German sausages have no competition;
• German bread is simply outstanding.

There is a very small, and ever shrinking, list of British good that we buy:

• Bacon, not because Brits are any better at making bacon, but because in Germany it is usually sliced too thinly (I don't like crispy American/German bacon), although I recently discovered that our main supermarket, Edeka, has an own-brand bacon that is more thickly sliced;
• Eccles cakes, because they are not made anywhere else (I suppose I could start making them myself);
• Malt loaf, again, because there are no alternatives to importing from the UK (I could also make this myself).

I am sure that many Brits find it galling that the EU has the temerity to regulate the quality of food sold in the EU, when it effects British manufacturers, but personally, I am very happy that the quality and safety of the food I buy is controlled, for example:

• Plenty of meat in my sausages (and if the label says it is beef, it is 100% beef);
• Almost no GMO products in my food (which, I am sure, will not be the case in Britain for long);
• No chlorinated poultry;
• No growth hormones in my food;
• Controls on antibiotics in meat and eggs.

British sausage producers are also crying about no longer being able to export to the EU, since 2021, but the problem is easily solved. In Germany, sausages are usually sold partly cooked (cooked, but not browned) and would be exempt from the EU regulations on the import of raw processed meat products; they are also coated in a water-based gel, which cooks off when you finish them off in the pan or oven, thus improving keeping qualities.

There doesn't seem to be any issue with exporting bacon to the EU, since it is not considered a processed raw meat product (it is chemically cooked by the curing process, and also preserved by smoking).

If Brits want to continue to eat garbage, for reasons of tradition, feel free, but don't expect to be able to sell that garbage to other nations.

So, anyway, regained sovereignty is yet another promise of Brexit that has not been delivered. Is anyone surprised?