The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has today announced sweeping new legislation requiring all gastropubs in England and Wales to include a minimum of one confit dish on their menus by October 2024.
The Gastropub Standards (Mandatory Confit) Act 2024 arrives following a three-year consultation period and aims to standardise the nation’s pub dining experience, ensuring customers know exactly what level of overpriced mediocrity to expect before they’ve even parked their Volvo estate.
Under the new rules, establishments serving food on slate, wooden boards, or in miniature shopping trolleys must feature at least one item described as confit. Duck confit, confit garlic, confit shallots, and the increasingly popular confit cherry tomatoes are all acceptable under the legislation. Slow-roasted items attempting to masquerade as confit will be subject to on-the-spot fines of up to £2,000.
“This is about protecting consumers,” explained Jennifer Hargreaves, newly appointed Director of the Gastropub Compliance Unit. “When someone pays £28 for a burger, they deserve the reassurance that comes from seeing ‘confit’ somewhere on that menu. Probably near the £9 side of triple-cooked chips.”
The Act also introduces secondary requirements, including a mandatory heritage breed mention for any pork product, the phrase ‘locally sourced’ appearing at least twice per page, and strict quotas on the word ‘jus’. Importantly, the legislation clarifies that ‘jus’ and ‘gravy’ cannot be used interchangeably. Gravy is what your nan made. Jus is what costs an extra £3.50.
Enforcement officers from the new Gastropub Standards Agency will begin inspections next month, armed with clipboards and an encyclopedic knowledge of the Ottolenghi back catalogue. They’ll be checking not just for confit compliance, but also verifying that any dish described as ‘deconstructed’ has been sufficiently disassembled to justify its £16 price tag.
“We found one place in Berkshire trying to pass off normal roast potatoes as ‘artisan tubers’,” said enforcement officer Michael Kendrick during a test inspection in Oxfordshire last week. “They’re now fully compliant with two confit options, their burgers come in brioche buns as required, and they’ve replaced their dessert menu with ‘smaller plates of earlier plates but sweet’.”
The Act has received mixed responses from the hospitality industry. The British Pub Confederation welcomed the clarity, though several members questioned whether the legislation goes far enough. “What about aioli?” asked one anonymous publican. “Surely there should be mandatory aioli?”
Critics, meanwhile, have pointed out that the average pub meal now costs more than a flight to Spain, where you could eat the actual regional cuisine these menus are bastardising.
The Department has confirmed that Scotland will introduce its own version of the legislation, though their version will include mandatory Irn-Bru jus.