Episode 24 - Festive foods: What’s behind the traditions?

Ed (00:00)

These are eaten all around the world bringing prosperity, good luck for the year ahead. 

James (00:06)

That's a recurring theme, it seems.  

There's clearly a link between food and money or fortune, whatever it may be.  

Ed (00:13)

Yeah, that's right. And I looked this up. And I've got a quiz for you, James.  

Intro (00:18)

Science on the Menu.  

A podcast by the European Food Safety Authority.

Ed (00:24)

Hello and welcome to another episode of Science on the menu.  

My name is Ed Bray and I work in the Communications team at EFSA. Joining me today is our special guest co-anchor James Ramsay, head of the communications unit at EFSA.  

Well, welcome back to the podcast.  

James (00:42)

Thanks a lot Ed. Yeah, Maybe I should be welcoming you.

Ed (00:46)

First time we're on screen. We’re coming to the end of the year. We've got a special episode on the holiday season and food is always an important part of that.  

James (00:56)

Absolutely. In my household, it certainly is.  

Ed (00:58)

Same in ours as well.  

Let's go to your household. What’s important for you?

James (01:03)

Well, traditional Christmas dinner for me is a British affair. We're talking turkey dinner, about 15 ingredients on the plate, roast potatoes, stuffing, all of these kinds of things. And that's been the way ever since I can remember.  

Even though I'm living here in Italy now, we keep that tradition alive. I've noticed since living here, I've been here over ten years now, a turkey around Christmas is more and more popular, also here in Italy. You can find it in the butchers and the supermarkets quite easily where you couldn't before.

Ed (1:33)

One thing you can't find, or at least I haven't found it, is Christmas pudding, which is a classic kind of UK tradition. And it's something that I always remember from my childhood, which is the moment when my parents would set this pudding on fire. So they would cover it in brandy and set fire to it.

And then there would be a moment where we don't know if it's going to work or not. We turn off the lights and then walk in and there would be these flickering blue flames, which I always remember.  

James (02:04)

We had very similar experience.

I have a trick for making sure that the brandy catches fire, which is to light it in a ladle before you pour it on the pudding - that way it doesn't get absorbed into the cake and so on.

Ed (02:18)

There's also an interesting food safety angle on this in that to bring good luck, my mum would put a sixpence in the Christmas pudding and whoever would get that, it was supposed to bring luck for the coming year.  

Now the advice would be to use something that is acceptable as a food contact material, because it's in contact with food, and to cover it or use something else that you could put in the food.

James (02:44)

That makes good sense. And obviously not something we were thinking of back then, back in the day.  

Ed (2:49)

Yes exactly.

James (02:50)

One of the things I have done, a sort of tradition that I've adopted if you like from living here, and particularly in this region in Parma, is having what they call anolini in brodo, which is very typical to this region.

It's a stuffed pasta. Every household, every family will have their own recipe, of course. But essentially, it's a meat filled pasta that you cook in a broth. And we will have that as well over the Christmas period along with many other Parmesan people here in the region.  

Ed (03:19)

And what about the night before Christmas? The vigilia they call it here.

James (03:24)

You would find that the vigilia, Christmas Eve, is a day of fasting.

Basically, what it means is that there should be no meat on the table. Typically, you would find dishes that focus around fish or even cheese and that's certainly the case here in Italy. I know it's the case also in many other countries, whether it's Bulgaria, Finland, Croatia, Portugal - salted cod, baccalà.  

Ed (03:46)

Different types of fish depending on where you are.

James (03:48)

Exactly, yes.

The same things apply to preparing, eating fish that you would apply to other types of food.

When you're storing fish in the fridge, you need to make sure that it's done at a certain temperature - below four degrees is the recommendation. And then you have to be careful when you're preparing fish to eat, making sure that you're using separate cutting boards compared to other food that you may be preparing.

Then basic stuff like making sure you wash your hands before and after you touch the food, ensuring clean surfaces, this sort of thing.  

Ed (04:21)

Keeping safe, having a good time at the holiday season, but being safe as well.

James (04:26)

In fact.  

One of the things to be aware of is levels of contaminants in fish.

We’ve done quite a lot of work here at EFSA on the presence of metals in fish, heavy metals like mercury. For advice on portion sizes and the number of times you should be eating fish in a week, this kind of thing, you should check with your national food safety authorities.  

Ed (04:46)

Thanks a lot, James. I’ve got a few props for you here to prompt some discussion about what they mean. So let me bring them out. The first I've got here, it's not actually a food, it's a plant.

James (04:58)

What are you going to ask me to do with that Ed?  

Ed (05:02)

(laughter)

The listeners won’t know what I've got here. I'm holding it up. It's green. It's got some white berries.

You might have guessed it now. And people they hang this up in their homes.  

What have we got here, James?  

James (05:13)

Looks suspiciously like mistletoe to me.  

Ed (05:16)

Right! That's it.  

James (05:17)

Why is that interesting? It's not food, obviously. And certainly, you shouldn't be eating mistletoe because it's toxic.

Ed (05:23)

Exactly. The tradition is that you kiss underneath it. Don’t worry James I'm not coming in your personal space.  

(laughter)

But it does have an interesting angle in terms of plant health because this is a semi-parasitic plant in the sense that if it's planted outside, it can grow on a tree and it can take the nutrients from it.  

From that perspective, we need to be careful what we do with the mistletoe afterwards.

James (05:51)

What's the semi parasitic bit mean?  

Ed (05:53)

Well, it means that it can get its own nutrients because it has the leaves and can photosynthesize, but it also has this tendency to take it from others like a parasite. And doing that it can kill other plants.  

James (06:07)

I was reading that it has quite a long tradition around the festive period.

There are references to it in ancient Greek literature, Norse mythology and usually symbolizing things like love, fertility, these kinds of things. It's made it all the way to today and we still see it in that way.  

Ed (06:26)

Let's get the next one out.

James (06:27)

Go on then.  

Ed (06:28)

These are very recognizable. I've got a bowl of them here, I'm going to put them on the table. What do you see, James?  

James (06:32)

They are table grapes, I would describe them as.  

Ed (06:35)

Exactly. And let me put them here closer to me.  

Maybe you know this already, why are these eaten at this time of year?  

James (06:38)

Well, I would guess with cheese, I don’t know it's something that's maybe pre-Christmas dinners.

I don't know. I've no idea. Tell me.

Ed (06:51)

That's true. But in some cultures, Spain for example, at the end of the year so when the clock is chiming midnight, the 12 chimes of the clock, the tradition is to eat one grape per chime of the clock. So, you're getting 12 grapes to bring you good luck, fortune, for the coming year.

(laughter)

James (07:11)

(laughter)

That sounds like a challenge you'd find on social media.  

Ed (07:17)

Yeah, indeed. And obviously we need to be careful when consuming foods quickly like this that you don't choke. You can take precautions to ensure the grapes are not too big, etcetera. 

James (07:28)

Spain, did you say this is?

Ed (07:30)

That's right. Some other countries, I think as well. And that's a tradition that's quite common at the end of the year to have certain foods to bring fortune or good luck for the coming year.

I've got another one here to show you. You can hear those.  

(sound of dry lentils in a bowl)

You see them on the camera.  

James (07:47)

Lentils. Dried lentils.

Ed (07:50)

Dried lentils, that's right. These are eaten all around the world bringing prosperity, good luck for the year ahead.  

James (07:58)

That's a recurring theme, it seems.  

There's clearly a link between food and money or fortune, whatever it may be.  

Ed (08:04)

Yes, that's right. And I looked this up and I've got a quiz for you, James.  

James (08:08)

Okay.

(nervous laugh)

Ed (08:09)

I've got a few examples of “end of year traditions” with food related to bringing fortune and prosperity, but I've put one in here that is not true. Let's see if you spot it.  

James (08:23)

What am I going to do?  

Ed (08:25)

You've got to guess the one which is not true.  

Carp scales are sometimes kept in wallets to attract wealth. This is in Poland.  

James (08:38)

Okay.

Ed (08:39)

Dropping a dollop of cream on the floor is thought to bring a rich and abundant year. This is in Switzerland.  

James (08:45)

Okay.

(laughter)  

Ed (08:45)

Some Italians wear red underwear on New Year’s Eve for good luck.  

James (08:50)

Right. How's that food related, Ed?

Ed (08:53)

This one I just threw in for good measure. It sounded nice.  

(laughter)

Throwing old dishes and plates at the doors of friends and family and the more broken dishes you find, the more luck you are believed to have in the coming year. That's in Denmark.  

It's traditional to hang an onion on the front door of your home in Greece.

And in some parts of the UK, it's traditional to hit each other over the head with a hard stick to bring good luck.

James (09:19)

(soft laugh)

Oh dear. I think I've heard of a couple of those before. I got the red underwear, that one I know.  

The onion on the door in Greece sounds like it could be true.

The carp scales, that's a bit of an odd one, right? You’d have a very fishy smelling wallet. But I'm tempted to think that's also true.

To be honest, the hitting over the head thing in the UK that to me sounds like a bit of a red herring too, right? Excuse the pun. 

Ed (09:55)

You're right. That would be quite a brutal way to bring good luck, but it is true that, in some parts, such as in Bulgaria, for example, decorated sticks are used to tap more gently on the parents, for example, and then receive something in return.  

James (10:06)

Is that right? Around the new year?  

Ed (10:09)

Around the holiday season time.

James (10:12)

Thanks, Ed.

(soft laugh)

Maybe before we close, we can touch on what we're doing with the podcast for next year. What we're looking forward to, what's kind of on the menu for Science on the menu.

Have you got any ideas for what we'd like to do with the podcast going into 2025.  

Ed (10:29)

Yes, we'd like to start to bring in some external guests. That would be nice to hear from others around the area of food, food safety, etcetera. In terms of topics I'd like to do more on, nutrition is always one that's popular in different areas of nutrition, supplements, vitamins and that's something where we get a lot of interest from society.

Perhaps also research into the microbiome, which is our gut. There's a lot of interest in how our diet affects our wellbeing, etcetera.  

James (11:00)

That's quite a complex scientific area as well.

One of the things that we're keeping a close eye on here in EFSA and could well feature again in podcasts next year is avian influenza.

We did a really interesting episode this year with our experts here following the progress of the disease. And it's not something that's going to go away, it’s a live issue, let's say.  

Ed (11:22)

Right. We'll keep a close eye on that next year as well. Another thing that we'd like to do is to get feedback from our listeners and questions as well. That's something that we will start, ask a question, and if you're lucky it will get on the show and we'll be able to ask it.

James (11:37)

Yeah, great. That should be good. Get a bit of interaction going.

Ed (11:42)

Thanks a lot, James. Wishing you obviously a really happy holiday season for yourself, your family. The same to our listeners.

You know, eat well, eat safely. Think of the food safety advice but enjoy that time with family and friends.  

Looking forward to joining you again for more episodes in 2025 of Science on the menu. Please interact with our podcast, share it. Check out the previous episodes and so on.  

But for now, that’s all from myself and to you James.

James (12:12)

Thank you, Ed, that’s all from me as well and I echo what you say. All the best to everyone over the holiday period and we’ll see you next year.

Ed (12:21)

Thank you and goodbye.

Outro (12:23)