Pringles take on biscuits

Pringles

 

It’s official that is if you hadn’t already realised, but Pringles have never had a meaningful relationship with potatoes.

 

A High Court judge in London recently ruled Pringles had more in common with biscuits, cakes and other such confection, rather than potato food stuffs. Something which could cause the traditional ‘dunking’ biscuit to be superseded by the ‘dunkable’ Pringle.

This fact was described in particular poetic eloquence by Richard Cordara QC, appearing for Pringle manufactures P&G, told the High Court: ‘The appearance and taste of a Pringle is not that of a potato crisp.

‘It has none of the irregularity and variety of shape that it always present in crisps. It has a shape not found in nature being designed and manufactured for stacking. A Pringle does not taste like a crisp, or otherwise behave like one. It is totally different.

‘A Pringle is designed to melt down on the tongue. It is not designed to present the kind of jagged sensations associated with a crisp or similar product.’

Crisps are made from slicing and frying a slice of potato, Pringles, by contrast, are made from dough like a cake or biscuit, but with some potato content’. He said.

The case came to court because UK Customs and Excise were argued Pringles were potato crisps and therefore subject to VAT at 17.5 per cent. Pringles sales are worth more than £100million a year in Britain and under UK law, most foodstuffs are exempt from VAT.

Tormented by missing biscuit

  It would seem the recent concerns over a possible global food shortage have already come to fruition in the UK.

Supermarket shelves up and down the Britain are already short of one of my favourite foods stuffs – the fig biscuit.

In fact things are so bad Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Tesco’s are just some of the supermarkets who have been forced over recent days to go as far as remove the fig biscuit label from their shelves.

So empty are the shelves it’s as if the fig roll never existed. But those of us who relish in the simple pleasure of letting the dry outer biscuit crumble into ones mouth to reveal the sticky fig centre are bemused by the loss of such a simple pleasure.

The reason for its absence is due to a poison called aflatoxin which has been found in consignments of Turkish dried figs. It’s a naturally occurring mould found on figs but it’s been linked with cancer, hence the fruits withdrawal.

Fortunately the biscuit’s absences is only temporary and stocks will return to the supermarket shelves once a fresh consignment of the fruit comes to our shores.