The heights of bureaucratic madness

EU Bans Claim "Drinking Water Can Prevent Dehydration"

Mish;s Global Economic Analysis,

18 November, 2011

In a 3-year study, EU concluded there is no evidence that drinking water can cure dehydration and has banned bottles from stating that claim. Previously, EU officials banned the selling of overly bent bananas and curved cucumbers but backed off after international ridicule.

Yes, I am serious. 

The Telegraph reports EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration

“EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact.

Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month. 

Ukip MEP Paul Nuttall said the ruling made the “bendy banana law” look “positively sane”.

He said: “I had to read this four or five times before I believed it. It is a perfect example of what Brussels does best. Spend three years, with 20 separate pieces of correspondence before summoning 21 professors to Parma where they decide with great solemnity that drinking water cannot be sold as a way to combat dehydration.

Rules banning bent bananas and curved cucumbers were scrapped in 2008 after causing international ridicule. 

Prof Brian Ratcliffe, spokesman for the Nutrition Society, said dehydration was usually caused by a clinical condition and that one could remain adequately hydrated without drinking water.”