Evolving the Classics

Take the Cornish pasty – the original convenience food taken down the mines wrapped in muslin – which is now one of the UK’s favourite foods,

making an appearance up and down high streets all over the country.

These days the Cornish pasty is also the UK’s most well-known GI (geographic indication) food, recognised by over half the nation’s shoppers as a product that has this special legal status.

It means that only pasties made in Cornwall and verified as being made to the approved recipe can be sold as Cornish pasties.

Over 120 million of these genuine Cornish pasties are made each year, which is good news for Cornish pastymakers and good news for Cornwall. For example, at least £15m is paid to Cornish farmers for ingredients for pasties.

Cornish clotted cream has topped the scones of VIPs, royalty, and even passengers on Concorde’s last flight. One of Cornwall’s first foods to discover markets across the Tamar, it was originally delivered to London by rail in tins. This evolved into the once-popular ‘cream by post’ concept, one of the first mail order foods.

Cornish clotted cream is another of Cornwall’s GI products. It has PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status in recognition of its distinctive qualities that come from the rich milk of Cornish dairy cows.