Jamie Oliver will no longer refer to Kaffir lime leaves in his recipe books or TV shows following concerns that the term has historically been used as a racial slur in South Africa, his representatives announced.
The TV chef will instead refer to them as lime leaves going forward, with his team now reviewing old content and already editing out prior references to the word Kaffir in online recipes to circumvent offending people.
A source close to Jamie Oliver said this morning that he could confirm that they were also making the switch to lime leaves and wouldn’t be using the term going forward and that historical recipe content would be reviewed accordingly.
The word Kaffir has already been removed from Jamie Oliver’s online recipe for quick chicken laksa, having been present in the wording last Friday, but it remains for his Thai green, Balinese chicken and Malaysian beef curries.
It comes after Tesco joined an increasing number of British supermarkets to change the name of its Kaffir lime leaves, saying it stands against racism and discrimination and has begun the process of modifying the product labels.
Waitrose was the first store to announce it would be dropping the word from its Cooks’ Ingredients products last week, saying they will be relabelled as Makrut Lime Leaves in response to customer criticisms they received.
The new packaging of the dried lime leaves, which are a prevalent ingredient in South East Asian food, will be rolled out to all stores and Waitrose by early next year.
Tesco then confirmed they would be following suit, telling a news outlet that they stand against racism and discrimination of any kind. Along with other retailers, that have begun a process of changing the name of their lime leaves.
Although the company didn’t have a date for when this would come into force, the retailer said it was working with suppliers to make the transition as quickly as possible.
Sainsbury’s and the Co-Op also said last week that they were now in the process of updating the names of the leaves on their food packaging.
The Co-Op said it has a zero policy on racism and the use of any racial slur words as it confirmed it would be modifying any descriptions of the leaves on its packaging.
Waitrose grocery trading manager Helena Dennis said that this name change was a crucial step in recognising how important it was for them to listen to customers and educate themselves when it came to the language they use.
We have become so fixated with what wording we use on various things that it’s become absurd – it’s just a word, or a phrase that people sometimes use for different things, sometimes it’s not meant to be offensive and other times it is, but really at the end of the day, it’s just a word – I mean will we now have to change the term kidney beans in case our renal system gets upset?
This is yet another thing to trigger everyone in the United Kingdom who are sick of being perpetually offended on behalf of other mobs, but it never bothered anyone, until one wokeful nincompoop pointed it out, and if I could post an emoji, it would be the one rolling its eyes.
And why is everyone so easily triggered over something that seemingly won’t affect your life, even a tiny bit? And can no one see how thick-witted this appears to the rational?
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 