Protected Food Designations

It's brand, simply. If you produce Coca Cola in a pepsi factory, does it matter ?The fact is, for many of these products, formal brand recognition did not exist back when the production tradition started. Therefore, when you buy Gouda, or Roquefort, or Bordeaux wine, you buy with the understanding that you're buying the real deal, but there's no brand per se. With the development of mass consumption and international trade, Europe has started protecting these products with prot

It's rarely "exactly the same". Champagne made in France and Feta made in Greece has specific ingredients, requirements etc, defined by law.In places where those laws don't apply, they make cheap knockoffs with different ingredients mix, laxer process etc, to sell cheaply. Danish or American feta, for example, is nothing like actual feta. At least Denmark cannot name it "Feta", whereas US companies can, thus misleading the consumer.Second, even in cases where it's exactly the same, it's a

This isn’t just an EU/US thing - even within the EU people are unhappy about not being able to call their product Feta just because it’s created outside of Greece.

The US isn't as strict as Europe when it comes to enforcing those sorts of rules. For example you can buy bottles of US made sparkling wine labeled "California Champagne" and various cheese like products labeled "Parmensan" that have never been anywhere near Italy.

A picture of the Matterhorn doesn't seem like a lie to me? I wouldn't normally expect that to be an indication that something was made in the country containing that peak.There's also a thing where many regional names are used as descriptions of foods: I don't expect Neapolitan ice cream to be made in Naples, I just expect the Strawberry/Chocolate/Vanilla pattern. In general I think this tends to be a lot more controversial in Europe, with specific DPO categoriza

Branding, intellectual property, are important but…the most important thing to protect is taste.In this regard the US is so far off the mark (and so chemically manufactured) as to cheapen the expensive and flavorful foods Europe continues to produce. When I was in Barcelona, the quality of the sausages and charcuterie was so far and above anything produced in America. It would be a real shame if they shared the same name.One place where this becomes very difficult in particular is when ord

I think they are making fun of the European Union's law on protected designation of origin. You can make something that tastes like champagne but you can't call it champagne unless it is from the Champagne region of France. You have to call it sparkling wine or something else. It's the same for parmesan cheese and many other products.https://en.wikipedia.org&#x

It's a regulation [0] that says that products that are associated with a specific geographic location cannot be manufactured elsewhere and then passed off as the original.[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_designation_of_origi...

Yes, this is it. In Europe, this is something very important. For example, you can only name Camembert a Camembert cheese coming from the area around the Camembert village. As customers, it allows a quick check: this is the cheap "like" version, this is the real one as they have a European label on the packaging too.

This is how we have protected products here in Europe - hundreds of cheeses, salamis, balsamico di modena, well basically anything with any history.It doesn't prevent copies, ie french/non local Swiss Gruyere, but its clear when you're buying it (AOP sign in the case of Gruyere).I don't see a problem with it - you have variety of selection, competition is not stiffled, but if you want traditional original one, you can navigate the market without being an expert on every