Food Journal: Illegal Foods

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Opic Food Journal: Illegal Foods
Food makes for one of the basic human needs cutting across the different social, political, and economic contexts structuring the global society. Besides the health and nutritional value of the different types of foods, their socio-cultural values also play significant roles in developing cultural practices that tend to form part of an individual’s or a group’s identity. The food-related cultural practices tend to inform equally different and unique perceptions of foods among communities around the world. These perceptions may further lead to the banning or illegalizing of particular types of foods in some societies or countries. The Scottish delicacy, haggis, makes for one of the foods that is characteristic of parallel perceptions from the United States and Scotland leading to a ban in the former since 1971 (Kelly, 2013). An exploration of the legal factors leading to the legalization and illegalization of the Scottish delicacy in Scotland and the United States, respectively, provides an excellent platform for understanding the social principles supported by the different legal stands on haggis.
According to Hodgkin (2023), it is illegal to import haggis from Scotland or the United Kingdom to the United States since 1971. The United States banned the traditional Scottish delicacy in 1971 following scrutiny of its key ingredients by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Findings by the USDA revealed that sheep lung is one of the key ingredients of haggis making up approximately 15% of the traditional haggis recipe (Hodgkin, 2023). According to the USDA, sheep lung creates health issues arising from the phlegm and stomach acid that may enter the lungs while slaughtering the sheep. The ban on sheep lungs from food led to the illegalization of haggis imports to the United States from the United Kingdom. However, the food...