Weird Fact of the Day

[wolffyluna]

So, 'ANZAC Biscuit' is a protected term. The Australian Department of Veterans' Affairs will land on you hard if you misuse it. Examples of misuse include things like adding ingredients that are not in the Official Recipe (for reasons other than avoiding allergens), or calling them 'bikkies' or 'cookies.' They usually just tell people selling these Incorrect Biscuits to stop, but they can fine people significant amounts,

However, 'ANZAC Day' is not a protected term. So you can make ANZAC Day Bikkie-Cookies that are 70% choc chip by volume, and Veterans' Affairs won't say boo.

This is, at least to me, a somewhat strange state of affairs.

Comments

[chocochipbiscuit]

Thank you for this piece of trivia! :O They sell 'Aussie bites' here in the States, and uh. I always thought it was just a quaint marketing thing, but now I understand where they got them from!

Except, yanno, they're not officially 'ANZAC Biscuits.' :P

[wolffyluna]

Huh, I didn't know those existed in America. Yeah, they're a pretty distinctively Australian biscuit, along with Timtams.

[lb_lee]

But what ARE ANZAC Biscuits? o_o Very important cookies?

--Sneak

[wolffyluna]

So, back in World War I, there was an Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC for short) that, supposedly, ate biscuits made of rolled oats, coconut and golden syrup while they were on ships being transported to wherever they were going to fight, because those were ingredients that lasted. It's somewhat of a tradition to eat them on ANZAC day, which is commemoration/memorial of WWI, especially the Battle of Gallipoli, where a lot of ANZACs and Turkish soldiers died .

If I remember correctly, there's regulation on how to use the term ANZAC for reasons of being respectful... but again, those regulations apply to the biscuits and not the day for some reason.

[lb_lee]

And today I learned about the Important Intellectual Copyright of Cookies--sorry, ANZAC Biscuits!

[feotakahari]

This sounds like that American thing where liquids that don’t have enough fruit to legally be “juice” are sold as “juice drinks” instead.

[wolffyluna]

Kinda? But there's also some stuff about Respecting Our Soldiers and Our History-- that gets enforced in the opposite of the way I'd expect.