In an astonishing move to promote 'dumbing down' of popular language, UK government officials reckon that food recipes need to be written in language which is easier to read and understand.

A new study by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills  states that recipes written by male chefs are easier to understand that those written by female chefs, and that many culinary terms will confuse readers.

The literacy experts analysed five recipes each from UK chefs Delia Smith, Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Nigel Slater. Smith's recipes were found to use too many adjectives and having too many stages, whilst many would be unable to follow Ms Lawson's recipes because of her long sentences.

As yet unpublished, the findings dissect recipes and analyse them by visual presentation, including font style and layout of the page. Also used is a "smog" (simplified measure of gobblegook) formula which determines the ease of understanding in the text.

Results are claimed to show that recipes are padded with words that are hard  to grasp. "Most of these recipes contain many long words such as immediately, consistency and translucent". In addition, adjectives such as "simmering" or "dicing" may prove problematic to many readers with literacy concerns.

Someone's lost the plot; it would be better to focus on fixing sliding educational standards which the majority are saddled with, rather than attacking recipe books bought out of personal choice.