Bowyers wait on pie vote (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Bowyers wait on pie vote

THE decision on whether a brand of pork pies can continue to be produced at a west Wiltshire factory rests in the hands of European bureaucrats.

Melton Mowbray pork pies have been made at Pork Farm Bowyers in Trowbridge for 100 years but now EU legislation could bar anyone but producers in the Leicestershire town from making the pies.

Producers in Melton Mowbray have applied to the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs for the pies to be given protected geographical status but the department has referred the decision to the European Commission.

Bowyers has pledged to fight the ruling, with the backing of west Wiltshire MP Andrew Murrison.

Dr Murrison said: "It may well help Bowyers' competitors, that we understand are behind this application, but it is difficult to see how consumers will benefit given the excellence of the traditional product currently being made in Trowbridge."

A spokesman for the company said it would be impossible to predict the impact such a ruling would have on the 700-strong workforce at the factory.

The European protected food name status came into force in 1993 and is designed to protect food names on a geographical or traditional recipe basis.

About three million Melton Mowbray pies are made in Trowbridge, but millions more are made at other factories around the country.