Official naming of regional products
Is Brie made in Somerset really a Brie? Or a Cheddar made in Australia
really a Cheddar?
It’s a touchy area. In 1992 European legislation
came into force that defined and protected regional products, but
getting these rules recognised on a global scale has not been an
easy ride.
The humble Cheddar has its origins in the 12th century, or possibly even earlier, in a small village in Somerset. A cow’s milk hard cheese, Cheddar became widely popular in the 19th century. Production of Cheddar cheese subsequently spread well beyond its rural homestead and today is not protected by the European legislation, which falls into several categories:
Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), Protected Geographical Status (PGS) and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG). However, ‘West Country farmhouse Cheddar cheese’, produced by a dozen or so dairies in Somerset and adjacent counties, does have a PDO status.
If Cheddar is the best-known cheese of British origin, Brie has a similar status as the best-known cheese of French origin. As with the Cheddar, it is now made across the world, but only two types of Brie – Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun – are defined as the absolutely, categorically real thing.
The EU legislation will get a slight revamp in May 2009, when products will have to carry PDO, PGI and PGS labelling, which will serve both to inform the consumer and protect the producer. It’s certainly an important area of food production, as Food From Britain (FFB), ‘the market development consultancy commissioned by the government to increase exports of UK food and drink, and to support the growth of quality regional food producers’ research found 74 per cent of consumers want to buy more regional produce. FFB further estimated that their work supporting regional food products resulted in £30m worth of extra sales between 2002 and 2006.
Such promotional work, and EU legislation, will never resolve such things as the ongoing arguments between Devon and Cornwall over who invented the pasty or clotted cream. The answers to those arguments are probably lost in the mists of time but they do serve to safeguard some of the products that define a region or a nation’s food culture.
