EU threatens home-farm bacon

A proposed European food hygiene directive poses a threat to home-made Austrian bacon, worries Der Standard. By applying the same standards to your corner butcher and to industrial slaughterhouses, it would make life hard for small-scale producers, requiring them, however large or small their operation, to "reserve a room for the vet or carry out the slaughtering and carving in separate rooms”. As a result, "700 businesses have stopped slaughtering altogether”, whilst on-site slaughtering at farms has declined by 80%, reports the Viennese daily, in favour of large-scale abattoirs and the “Austrian meat industry”.