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Cultural appropriation of food: What is it?

And is it ok to trademark the Vietnamese national dish β€œpho”?

A campaign on TikTok recently started a fresh conversation about cultural appropriation of food. It started when content creator Yen Bui, who now lives in London, highlighted that a British-owned restaurant chain called Pho had trademarked the name of the Vietnamese national dish a while ago, which limited the rights of other restaurant owners to use the word in their names because they could have faced legal action. Yen Bui tells us why she started the campaign, and why it matters to so many.

What is cultural appropriation of food? US-based content creator Kim Pham explains. And the ΒιΆΉΙη’s Charlotte Edwards talks us through how and why trade marks are used in food in the first place.

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Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.uk
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Presenter: William Lee Adams
Producers: Mora Morrison and Hayley Clarke
Editor: Verity Wilde

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9 minutes

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Today 18:50GMT

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  • Tomorrow 03:50GMT

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