No More Buying Eggs By The Dozen in the UK

Buying a dozen eggs in the UK could be a thing of the past, as a new European Union labeling law kicks in. The new rule, crafted by what I could only describe as lunatic bureaucrats in Brussels, decrees that you can't sell food by the numbers:

For the first time, eggs and other products such as oranges and bread rolls will be sold by weight instead of by the number contained in a packet.
Until now, Britain has been exempt from EU regulations that forbid the selling of goods by number. But last week MEPs voted to end Britain’s deal despite objections from UK members.
The new rules will mean that instead of packaging telling shoppers a box contains six eggs, it will show the weight in grams of the eggs inside, for example 372g.

Or that a bag of white rolls has 322g inside instead of half a dozen. The rules will not allow both the weight and the quantity to be displayed. [...]

Adam Leyland, editor of The Grocer trade magazine, said: ‘You couldn’t make it up, could you? It would be funny if it were an April Fool’s joke. But it’s not and it will potentially cost the industry millions, while confusing customers no end.

Christopher leake of The Daily Mail has got the story: Link


1: Daily Mail usually means badly investigated, fabricated and untrue. They thrive on this rubbish all the time.

2: Here in Italy I've never been confused as to how many eggs I've bought, I hadn't even noticed the carton didn't say how many, basically I looked at the packet and all was clear.

3: The idea that egg producers have to put on the packet how much the eggs weigh is much better for consumers than the number of eggs. Think 6 small eggs versus 6 big eggs. Isn't weight a better bet for those of us wanting to get more for our money?

This reminds me of the whole "we can't call our sausages sausages" scandal (those pesky eurocrats). The sad fact was that The UK can't call sausages objects that have less than a percentage of meat in them. On the continent sausages are for the most part meat, in the UK they could often be anything but.

Just my tuppence worth.

8)

Paul.
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Britain is messed up. The EU is messed up. There you go, I've admitted it. Now can you:
A- Stop posting Daily Mail articles
B- Stop posting articles that aren’t really "neat" but are intended to berate my country/ area I live in.

It's all become rather sinister. "EU/ GB is stupid etc come and stare in awe at their silliness", god knows how they had the biggest empire the world has ever seen...

We can't all be perfect. An ultimatum arises; I'm leaving this site if you continue to post non- "neat"/ derogatory articles.
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@ bobster

I have noticed also that they like the pseudo-science fluff. Sure, it makes for great headlines, but I expect better from Neatorama. Maybe I should revise my expectations?
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It is mindlessly easy to offer a knee-jerk criticism of a post because it links to a source you don't like.

On the other hand, if you take 12 seconds to type "European Parliament dozen eggs" into Google News, you can find the same report published by the Telegraph -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7857087/EU-to-ban-selling-eggs-by-dozen.html

or the Times of India, or the Times of Malta...
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Really, I haven't found that to be the case with The Daily Mail; they are prurient and sensationalistic, but factually -- usually accurate to the extent they pretend to report facts. For example, they include a quote from a trade expert, those quotes are rarely if ever made up, although they are often mischaracterized. To compare it to American tabloids with fictional stories is misleading.

So-called tabloids like The Daily Mail do a large part of the investigative reporting in the west which mainstream journalists have largely abandoned, and these papers break a lot of important and notable stories.

The critics here are apparently unable to rebut the article's facts, but attacking the messenger passes for their idea of 'elevated' debate.
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I have never heard of this ruling before. The Daily Mail frequently lies about the things they have declared as enemy of the British People, such as the EU... or single moms.

Trust me, this is *not* the case. The EU does a lot of stupid things, but this isn't one of them.

And yes, please stop using the Daily Mail as your source, it's not just to stop more falsehood from getting into the world, it's also better for your blood pressure not to read that rag.
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ha ha. Yes, it's B.S. I'm happy to see so many people mentioning it. I live in France, and there, you buy your eggs by numbers. The same is all EU countries. And you will always do. And we have never heard of anything like stupid laws to prevent it. And you know how we love to berate against stupid EU laws, especially concerning food. Yes, sheer BS. Period.
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@SuperCrap
I think you're wrong. My intention wasn't to rebut the article; it was to show how the source being used is poor. I myself have heard this from some friends before reading the article. We all had a good laugh, because of course it's ridiculous. Everything the Daily Mail writes is BLACK OR WHITE, and they invariably fall on the white side. There is no compromise. Whereas in reality, in the EU and GB, that is pretty much all there is, compromise.

Whether you're from the Daily Mail or not, I still think you're a regular reader of some tory/ regal/ way-it-used-to-be rag. Which is fair enough, just don't expect me to treat your argument as I'd treat one from a reader of a proper paper.

I don't presume any of this is "elevated" debate. After all, the responses are hours apart and I can't see the reaction in your face when I say we won't have a monarchy for much longer...
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I thought after the Greece and state-debt debacle the EU would be thankfully quiet instead of stirring the @#?* again. But no, whilst Rome (or Athens) burns they are more interested in dictating to the rest of EU how we measure eggs! Well done European Union, got it's priorities right again! Quicker the UK is out of that God forsaken collection of anglophobes the better.
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Could I just point out that Minnesotastan linked to a Telegraph article that had the same exact information, yet hours later other posters continue to berate The Daily Mail, calling their articles everything from rubbish to lies. Of course these same posters berated NEATORAMA for even publishing the story in the first place because it's not "neat". Isn't "neat" subjective and don't you all have choices as to what you read? Lighten up why don't you? This isn't life and death here, it's just light, sometimes educational, entertainment for cryin' out loud.
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This is such a load of BS. They will still be sold by the dozen/half dozen, they will just now ALSO have the weight printed on the carton, which makes sense.
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Not hating, just making sure the facts are known:

"The European Parliament statement continued:

No ban on eggs by the dozen
Selling eggs by the dozen will not be illegal under the terms of the amendments adopted by the European Parliament to EU food labelling proposals. Labels will still be able to indicate the number of food items in a pack, whether of eggs, bread rolls or fish fingers.

Labelling by weight
Reports that claim the new rules will not allow both the weight and the quantity to be displayed are also wrong. The new food labelling regulation does not affect existing EU rules on the size of eggs: There are four official sizes of eggs: very large (73g and over), large (63g to 73g), medium (53g to 63g), and small (under 53g) - this will not change."

The daily mail rarely prints truths or facts.

Source: http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/2010/06/shock-as-eu-says-you-can-still-buy-12.html
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