Let’s kick off the new year with good news.
Alf was cheered to learn that the Northland woman banned from making jam for her local hospice shop is back in full production after a gap of four months.
Remember her?
She is Gloria Crawford, a 68-year-old retired farmer from Waipapa.
She is a great lady doing good deeds for her community.
But she fell foul of local council inspectors with nothing much to do, obviously, except flex their regulatory muscle. They told her she could no longer make jams and pickles for sale because she didn’t have a registered kitchen.
Can you guess where a common- sense way around this daftness was to be found?
In Wellington, folks, among the capital’s bureaucrats.
The Food Safety Authority overruled what it described as absurd regulations, and allowed the good lady to continue, albeit with an obligtion to submit a food safety programme.
Mrs Crawford says she passed the jam test several weeks ago, and now she’s had the all-clear for her sauces and pickles.
“They stood and watched me make a batch of jam and that was fine, I met their criteria there.
“And then the sauces and pickles came up. I got these questions and seemed to answer them satisfactorily so they said well that’s okay, go for it.”
Mrs Crawford reckons new food regulations being brought in next year should make life easier for charity jam makers.
Good stuff.
Just one thing would turn this good news into great news. Alf would like to hear that the puffed-up poohbahs responsible for a pathetic interpretation of policy procedures for making pickles were sent packing. They are prize prats.