Encyclopedia

Department for the Environment, Fisheries and Rural Affairs; covers agriculture, even if the word is absent from the title.

Medieval tax charged on stock that has been kept off the market with the intention of earning bigger margins once the risk has receded. Originally an old French word, readers may also encounter an anglicised version, demurrage.

The Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes (DGCCRF) is the French finance ministry’s fraud squad. Be Very, Very Nice to them if you meet them at wurk…

Clarified butter,which has been heated to drive out the water and cleared of protein. After this treatment, the ghee can be kept at room temoperature, even in hot cllimates.

High Risk Foods Not Of Animal Origin, a wide and varied range of products that have a special notification status: eg peanuts and peanut butters from specific countries that should be tested for aflatoxins; blueberries from central Europe, which need checking for Caesium 137 (Chernobyl fallout). HRFNAO are regulated by European law and the relevant articles were assimilated into English law well ahead of Brexit.

Import of Products, Foods and Feeds System. Government-run import registration service: all goods covered by IPAFFS must be notified to the point of entry before they arrive in the UK. More detail here. This system is managed by Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA)

Livestock Unit, a measure of the grazing capacity of grassland. Expressed as the number of animals of a certain species and developmental stage that can be grazed on a pasture per hectare.

Plantations are monocultures that were historically tended by slave labour. After Britain abolished slavery in 18XX, the slaves they employed were moved out to make way for indentured labourer, or slaves by another name. The plantation owners were compensated by the British government for the disruption caused to their businesses, but no-one thought to compensate the former slaves or their families for the hardship and privations they had suffered on the plantations for generations.

Pomace is the paste made by crushing fruit, such as olives, before extracting the oil mechanically, with a centrifuge. Olive pomace oil is recovered later on for frying food in canteens and institutions.

Stock Keeping Unit, a line in an inventory