A campaign has been launched to give Britain’s “cracking” traditional pie and mash protected status.
The meal – a minced beef pie and mashed potatoes with a parsley liquor – has so far been “underappreciated” despite being the “original fast food”, according to conservative former minister Richard Holden.
Mr Holden, who is MP for Basildon and Billericay, and producers have made representations to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) about an application for Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) status for the dish.
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Defra said an application for TSG status requires agreement on the recipe that producers would need to follow to use the name in future and they will assess the case once a formal application is submitted.
Mr Holden, who has written to 40 MPs to try to rally support for his quest, will lead a parliamentary debate in Westminster Hall on Tuesday to further press the case for the “cracking” products to get the “recognition they deserve”.
Mr Holden told PA the meal hailed from London but has made its way “down the Thames Gateway and out into the world”.
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He also described how it used to be made with eel but when the Thames river suffered pollution during the Industrial Revolution, eels were “no longer there” so they were replaced with mince.
“The crucial thing is they kept the liquor from the original eel pie, which is why you’ve got the parsley sauce because traditionally parsley liquor would always have gone with a fish dish,” Mr Holden said.
The MP appeared confident he would win in his cause to get pie and mash a protected status as he said: “I don’t start campaigns I can’t win.”