Chips Cops to Encourage Chips Shops to Supersize
Chip cops are soon going to popping into U.K. chip shops with calipers and calorie counters. They'll be part of a Food Standards Agency pilot program to encourage British fryers to make their chips (already fatter than American fast food fries) to be even thicker—and thus slightly healthier.
The FSA scheme will cover Cambridgeshire, Greater Manchester and Northern Ireland by the end of this month. Officials will visit 80 chip shops to examine how much fat is in their chips and offer advice.
If the pilot scheme is successful it will be rolled out across the country and last two years. Other small caterers including Indian and Chinese takeaways will be included.
Douglas Roxburgh, president of the National Federation of Fish Fryers (which is totally a real thing), replies that the rules are "totally unfair." But in a classic example of businesses using government to put their competitors under pressure, instead of making a case for being left alone, he just wants the other guys punished, too:
'They should be concentrating on fast food outlets who make the thin French fries, not the traditional independent chip shop,' he said.
'We will be opposing this as much as we can until they make it a level playing field and start asking McDonald's, KFC and Burger King to change their chip sizes too.'