Those of you as old as me may remember the myth promulgated by the tabloid press some years ago, that the European Union had banned bananas which were not straight. The recent nonsense about amateur jam makers not being allowed to put jam into recycled jars has revealed the gullibility and the absence of basic research skills of such august bodies as the Church of England and the Women’s Institute.

The trail begins with the Churches’ Legislation Advisory Service (CLAS) which belatedly tripped over some EU regulations from 2004 and 2006 relating to advice for food businesses saying they should not reuse food containers which had been recycled because of the possibility of contamination from the previous contents. The advice was largely about food which was being imported and exported between countries in the EU to ensure consistent standards of hygeine and to maintain confidence. It makes makes perfect sense in terms of plastics, bags, cardboard etc., which are permeable.

Unfortunately, the CLAS then wrote to the Church of England with advice that parishioners should no longer use recycled jam jars in which to sell or give away homemade preserves. I say “unfortunately” because they made two rather fundamental mistakes in giving this advice: they had missed the bit about the regulations only applying to food businesses and they didn't appear to realise that glass is not permeable, and hence not relevant to this legislation.

Rather than checking the original regulations for themselves, the Church of England then wrote to all parishes telling them that their parishioners must no longer sell or donate preserves in recycled jars.  They claimed that they had contacted the Food Standards Advisory Service who had confirmed that this was the case.  This seems rather unlikely since this is NOT the information given by the FSA.  The FSA document concerned is the “Guidance Notes for Food Business Operators on Food Safety, Traceability, Withdrawal and Product Recall”.  The FSA says that local authorities determine what constitutes a food business and that the occasional selling of preserves made from what you grew in the garden in order to raise money for charity, school fetes and local events, is not considered to be a food business.  The EU Commission has confirmed this.

You would have thought that after other recent fiascos with the tabloids, who are not always noted for calm, well researched, investigative journalism, the C of E and the WI would have done a bit of basic investigation before advising everyone to stop doing what they have done for decades up and down the country!  There can’t be many MPs who have not bought and eaten jams, marmalades and chutneys made by their constituents, at village fetes, jamborees, school festivals and church bazaars.  I myself have sold marmalade to MP Ian Duncan-Smith and he is very much alive and kicking! 

The sorry escalation of the myth is well documented at http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.co.uk. It shows the tabloid press at their worst; maximising hysteria based on their wish to discredit the European Union at any cost.  What is clear is that this has little or nothing to do with the EU.  The Daily Mail and The Express, followed by numerous local papers, even claimed that jam makers could be prosecuted, imprisoned and fined up to £5,000 and quoted hysterical outaged responses from those who had simply swallowed the story without question!

East Midlands Labour MEP Glynis Willmott has written a good rebuttal of this at www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk.  There are no laws either new or old which ban the reuse of jam jars by people making preserves to sell or donate for charity or for occasional sale at local events.  The EU has no powers to fine people either, let alone put them in prison!

What upsets me most is that the WI, an organisation which has done so much to promote home baking and preserving as well as campaigning for so many other good causes, even giving Tony Blair the slow handclap, would have been so easily fooled.  Their website advice, still up as I write this in late October, claims that glass is permeable and should not be used!  Wine makers should be told!!  I like the idea that, over time, you might be able to tell what kind of jam was inside the jar just by sniffing but actually this is just pig ignorance circulated as fact by an authoritative and trusted organisation whose pronouncements will be believed by many.  They also claim to have contacted the FSA but, like the C of E, have not printed what the FSA has actually said.  Such is the furore that the EU Commission has now responded to these claims, calling them “completely untrue”.

I will continue to make wonderful preserves for you to enjoy and put them into recycled jars which I have thoroughly cleaned and sterilised  New lids are used where necessary.   And I'll keep on foraging for fruit in the fields and hedgerows of this country for cherries, damsons, plums, rosehips, blackberries, wild apples, sloes, elderberries, rowan berries and elderflowers to make preserves with. In three decades, I have never had a complaint and include MPs and tabloid journalists amongst my satisfied customers.