Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by gleslie | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

gleslie

No speedometer required in Texas.

View on HN

You're lucky to live in a place where government has still, to some extent, been kept in check.

These days are long gone in Europe, where the very pace at which you breathe is regulated.

I'm sure that's not an exaggeration at all, so do you have a source for that claim?

In 2013, instead of solving real actual problems, the EU were upset that danish cinnamon rolls might have too much cinnamon in them. The ban was avoided by a reclassification of the product.

Stories like this happen with disturbing regularity.

Source (da):

https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/hvad-blev-der-af-eus-forbu...

Translated:

https://www.translatetheweb.com/?from=da&to=en&dl=en&a=https...

That sounds like the EU were preventing a known toxin from being used in food. The USA also has restrictions on coumarin in food.

Danish food producers were taking the cheap route (Cassia cinnamon rather than the not-dangerous Cinnamomum verum), and rather than requiring the bakers to use less spice or the more expensive one, the Danish government abused the loophole in the law for traditional recipes.

+1 to the EU, -1 to Denmark and the bakers.

EU probably felt they were justified in their meddling. Meanwhile, we have been eating Danish cinnamon pastries for who knows how long, and by some miracle have not died. And if death by pastry were to become an issue, it would be one [we could solve ourselves](https://www.foedevarestyrelsen.dk/english/Pages/default.aspx).

The entire tyrannical bureaucracy of the EU undoubtedly feel they're doing a great service, while a lot of people feel they're sticking their noses where they don't belong, making problems where none exist to justify their existence.

The regulation was passed with a huge majority [1], including all the Danish MEPs.

No-one died, but there's an account here [2] of mouth lesions caused by excessive cinnamon bun consumption.

The Veternary and Food Administration works closely with the European Union. [3]

[1] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=PV&refer...

[2] https://doi.org/10.14219/jada.archive.2000.0311

[3] https://www.foedevarestyrelsen.dk/english/Aboutus/Internatio...

They wanna ban smoked meats now. I think that and your post makes a lot of sense as there is clear evidence of their damage.

I've moved from EU to NZ and it's kinda nice not to have that stringent regulation. People here has really good common sense, empathy and are quite technically handy. But that came from small population. Most are incredibly racists (tho easier than aussies) and fail to see their own weaknesses...

I must admin EU is so much more modern than NZ.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com