Jamie Oliver has been accused of cultural appropriation by Labour's shadow women and equalities minister and other social media users for launching 'punchy jerk rice'.
Dawn Butler, the MP for Brent Central in north west London, picked up on comments from social media about the product and joined in with her own criticism.
She suggested Oliver was using the word jerk to increase the sales of his rice and his product was not faithful to the original Caribbean recipe which is usually a marinade for meat.Â
The Labour MP also suggested father-of-five ask Levi Roots, the creator of jerk barbeque sauce Reggae Reggae sauce, to teach him about it.
Ms Butler tweeted: '#jamieoliver @jamieoliver #jerk I'm just wondering do you know what #Jamaican #jerk actually is?
'It's not just a word you put before stuff to sell products. @levirootsmusic should do a masterclass. Your jerk Rice is not ok. This appropriation from Jamaica needs to stop.'
Jerk can refer to a type of cooking which involves marinating meat in a jerk spice mixture, or the marinade itself. It originated in Jamaica.
The spice mix itself primarily uses allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers - neither of which are listed on the ingredients list for Mr Oliver's product - alongside others.
David Llewellyn wrote: 'I was about to headbutt my desk over this tweet from Dawn Butler because most cultural appropriation brouhahas are nonsense.Â
'Then I saw this description of Jamie Oliver's "Jerk" Rice. On what planet can "garlic, ginger and jalapenos" be described as "Jerk"?'
Many jerk recipes involve meat such as chicken or pork, but Mr Oliver's £2.30 microwaveable rice offering is vegetarian, with the packaging suggesting it is 'seriously good' with chicken wings. Â
Sainsbury's, Morrisons, and Waitrose all stock the product on their websites.Â
The row over the rice began a few days ago when Bristolian Marti Burgess, the associate director of law firm Gregg Latchams, tweeted a snap of the product in her local supermarket.
READ MORE:Â
Ms Burgess wrote: 'OMG - this has sent me over the edge - jerk is a marinade and a method of cooking meat @jamieoliver why have you done this? You just can’t have jerk rice.'
Since then several Twitter users, including Ms Butler, have called Mr Oliver out for incorrectly using the label 'jerk'.Â
Regina Holland said: 'Just because Dawn Butler's an MP it doesn't mean she can't have an opinion on anything else. To say otherwise is ridiculous and single minded at best.Â
'She's not saying nobody from Jamaica shouldn't eat Jamaican food, she's pointing out the bastardisation of our national dish.Â
'There's no such thing as jerk rice apart from what Jamie Oliver has concocted. That's her point. Anybody from any nationality can eat anything they want, there are just some dishes that are best left alone and enjoyed how they're supposed to be made.'Â
Michelle Bryan added: 'Spot on Dawn - as the daughter of a proud Jamaican, I know that my dad hated this type of thing - so fake.'Â
This article was first published on dailymail.co.uk and is reproduced here with permission.
Â
