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Campaign to save the pint

30/01/2006

MPs are being urged to save the British pint in the face of proposed European Union legislation.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is calling on UK politicians to oppose plans by the European Commission to phase out national variations in the way that milk is sold.

The EU executive wants the 25 member states to provide a variety of pre-packaged products in standard units.

The traditional pint is 564 millilitres, while a litre provides just 500 millilitres of milk. The BRC claims that the proposed changes will mean less milk for consumers in the UK.

BRC director of food and consumer policy, Andrew Opie, said: "This legislation is just another example of unnecessary legislation the European Commission is trying to impose on member states.

"Feedback from retailers is that consumers are happy with the current pint measurement and would not want to see changes in this area. As far as many are concerned, this is just needless changes to legislation."

Mr Opie added that the European Commission had made allowances for buying beer in pints and asked why the same allowance could not be extended to milk.

The proposed legislation is due to be voted on by MEPs in the European parliament on February 2nd and the BRC has been lobbying MPs to resist change.

The EU has already introduced legislation governing the way that fruit and vegetables are displayed.

Dairy producers in the UK are increasingly finding margins squeezed, with production costs rising. However, the Milk Development Council (MDC) announced this month that the major UK supermarkets had boosted retail milk prices by 2.2p per litre.

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