Yorkshire puddings, Chelsea buns....

So now you can't call a pork pie a Melton Mowbray pie unless it's been made in Melton Mowbray apparently. Of course, I'm looking at things purely from a consumer's point of view, but it does all seem rather silly and trivial. I can see that if a product is specific to a place or an area, because it depends upon some ingredient which can be found or grown only there, or some process which can be carried out only there, then it is perfectly justifiable to protect its identity in law, but where we are dealing simply with a recipe using common ingredients, or a process which can just as well be carried out in one place as another, then its name simply reflects the recipe or the process. An Eccles Cake is what it is because of the ingredients from which it is made, and the way in which it is made, and not because of anything specific to the small Lancashire town of that name. I would suggest that the acid test should be - what would the reasonable consumer understand from the name in question. If I buy a Melton Mowbray pork pie, do I really think I am getting a pie which has been made in Melton Mowbray, or do I think I am simply getting a pie made in a certain way? Speaking for myself, definitely the latter.