Parmesan: the new Champagne
 

Probably reported everywhere by now - but not in DiningBuzz?

Being so far from Europe I'm not familiar with German 'Italian' cheese but the story I saw tonight on the world news noted that German producers had been passing their own cheese off as Italian, rather than Italian-style.

From AP: EU Court: Parmesan Is Protected Name
'LUXEMBOURG (AP) — The European Court of Justice ruled Tuesday that only the tasty, crumbly cheese that has been made for some 800 years near the Italian city of Parma can legally be called Parmesan.

In a case dating back to 2003, the court criticized Germany for allowing sales of imitation Parmesan in violation of European Union food origin rules that reserve the name Parmesan for Italian cheese only.

The case was brought by the European Commission. There was no punishment for Germany, but German producers will now have to change the name of their cheese.

Over the years, the EU has become more active in legally protecting dozens of brand names of foods and drink peculiar to European regions — from Champagne to feta cheese.

In 2005, in a setback for Danish producers, the EU high court said feta can only come from Greece, and imitations cannot use that name.

Germany argued in court that Parmesan was a generic term for a type of hard, crumbly cheese that is often grated over food and cannot claim an Italian uniqueness.

The court disagreed, saying Parmesan was "clearly a translation of 'Parmigiano Reggiano.'"'

According to local reports, the restrictions in this case are similar to the earlier Feta case: hard, flaky 'parmesan' cheese made outside Europe (such as here in Oz) and sold outside Europe will not get policed and restricted, as France has enforced the name Champagne. :rolleyes:

So how does this play out for the foodie FTer 'diaspora'? :eek:

Pecorino is better :p

As of last year, Lidl still had in-store (not on the packaging) "feta" labels referring to a German cheese that turned out to be barely edible.

I actually think the Germans had a point.

As long as they weren't calling their product "Parmigiano Reggiano" or "Parmigiano" I don't see why they can't call their stuff parmesan.

Anyone not clued up enough not to know the difference from the label isn't going to appreciate that difference anyway. There are even FTers in another thread defending Kraft's dessicated ground 'parmesan' saying it isn't particularly nasty. Parmesan stopped having any meaning to me years ago, yet I value and look out for the "Parmigiano Reggiano" stamp.

To me it's kind of like France preventing a British company from labelling their product 'champers'.

The status of Mozzarella is getting abused much more with inferior imitations. Wish they'd concentrate on that and other misrepresented foods instead.

Parmesan and pecorino are quite different situations.

Parmesan deserves a DOC or whatever the designation is for
cheese, as it means "from the region of Parma."

Pecorino doesn't, as it means "smells like sheep pee."
Pecorino Romano is thus protected, but not all pecorino.

But then, what about Cheddar, Stilton, Wensleydale, Red Windsor, Lancashire, Double Gloucester, Red Leicester, Sage Derby...

Stilton can only be made in Leicestershire or the two counties to the north of it (Notts and Derbys).

I stand corrected.

Ah, and I see Wikipedia confirms that it does take its name from Stilton in Huntingdonshire. Every time I pass that on the way to Peterborough, I wonder if it's to do with it.

It's quite an odd story - how many foods/drinks are restricted to being produced in a given area which does not include the place that it's named after?

Are there going to be law suits against Swizzels Matlow's vile Parma Violets then?

The name suggests they come from the same region.

i think quite a lot, although many carry name place. looks like about 20 hams are protected. some have name attached, some do not. prosciutto is the italian word for ham. it is not protected. prosciutto di parma is protected.

And then there are foods that are named after a region of which that region might be oblivious.

The example that spring to my mind is jamon York. I doubt if any of the tons of ham labelled this way in Spain ever came from Yorkshire.

Where did I read an article on French Champage producers wanting to source some grapes from Dover? :)

SQ or another iflight mag?

I don't think so.

the brits are now making another bad wine, this one with bubbles and they call it champagn.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...le-452812.html

I was on a BA plane that only had only brit wines on board. after that, i stopped badmouthing virginia wines.

the french are trying to expand the champagne growing area. expand would be to make the present area larger, as demand exceeds supply.

British Wine...it kind of feels unnatural to say. Interesting article though. Is it really that bad? I'm used to the wines from upstate NY.

The story I'm referring to (it was not in a BA magazine!) in some other airline inflight mag was specifically about growers around the Dover area and started off noting that demand has exceeded Champagne supply and that as a result, someone had linked the call above, to increase the Champagne grape area, to an area similar in temperature/terroir to that region 30+yrs ago. Hence the UK!

Interesting propaganda from the England growers. ;)

Some English wines are not at all bad. "British wine", on the other hand, is a term to be avoided. It refers to a ghastly, only very vaguely winelike concoction made in the UK from imported concentrated grape juice. Yes, really. Memories of teenage mistakes from a bygone century... Yuk. Confirmation here.