EditorMARMALADE MADNESS: The Easter breakfast row that’s got politicians in a sticky situation
It is the preserve that launched a thousand panicked headlines — but the Government says Britain’s beloved marmalade is going nowhere, despite a week of political boiling over the nation’s breakfast tables.
Reports emerged this week that Keir Starmer’s planned food deal with the EU could force manufacturers to relabel their marmalade as “citrus marmalade” — sparking outrage from Tory and Reform politicians and prompting one newspaper to ask what Paddington Bear would think.
The row centres on the Government’s proposed sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement with Brussels, under which the UK would align with updated EU food rules. Among those rules is a 2024 EU directive that widened the definition of marmalade — allowing spreads made from fruits other than citrus to use the name, as long as they specify the fruit involved.
Is marmalade to become toast?Photo by Gemma Holmes on Pexels.com
The change came about because in several EU countries, the words “marmalade” and “jam” are used interchangeably. Before the update, only citrus-based spreads could legally be called marmalade under EU law — a rule that itself originated from British lobbying in the 1970s, which gave orange marmalade a special protected status in Brussels.
Critics including shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel accused the Government of letting EU bureaucracy creep back into British kitchens. Writing on X, she said Labour was “attacking the great British marmalade” and accused the Prime Minister of being “desperate to fit in with his EU pals.”
But the Government hit back with some relish — pointing out that marmalade on British supermarket shelves is already typically labelled as “orange marmalade” or “Seville orange marmalade,” which already complies with the new EU wording. The directive itself states that “citrus” can simply be replaced with the name of the fruit.
A Government source said: “This isn’t such a sticky situation after all. The only ‘marmalade madness’ is the Tories and Reform boiling over with rage about jar labels that won’t need to change. Despite false claims that the name orange marmalade is toast, it will be preserved — so there’s no need to spread alarm.”
The fate of marmalade will be preserved, says the GovernmentPhoto by Jess Bailey Designs on Pexels.com
For Wales, the story is not entirely without substance. Welsh food producers who export to EU markets have long navigated labelling requirements, and any SPS agreement would affect producers across the UK including those in Welsh food and farming sectors.
The World Marmalade Awards, held annually at Dalemain Mansion in Cumbria since 2005, said it planned to keep its competition restricted to citrus-based spreads regardless of any rule changes. The awards’ director said the competition aimed to uphold what she described as “rock solid British standard marmalade, the type which has been eaten for centuries from Elizabeth I to James Bond.”
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed that UK firms will need to adapt labelling to comply with the updated EU directive under the proposed SPS deal — but insisted most manufacturers had already made, or were preparing to make, the changes for export purposes anyway.
The Government said the deal would make it easier for British-produced marmalade — alongside other classic products such as Cumberland sausages and Scottish smoked salmon — to be sold across EU markets.
Whether Paddington would approve remains unclear. The fictional Peruvian bear, whose passion for marmalade sandwiches has made him a cultural institution, has not commented.
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