The EU wants to ban US firms calling their cheeses by protected European names such as parmesan, gruyère, and Feta as part of ongoing free-trade discussions.
Within the EU, only hard cheeses made in the areas around Parma, Italy, can be referred to as parmesan, and blue cheese produced in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire can be called stilton under protected designation of origin (PDO) legislation. PDO protects local producers, and stops competitors creating similar cheeses elsewhere and taking advantage of the history of these products.
However, US dairy producers have long branded their cheeses under these EU-protected names to gain recognition, with US-produced parmesan and feta being two popular products sold in the US as if they were the same as the cheeses under the same “brand” as in Europe.
As part of the ongoing free trade agreement discussions going on in Brussels, the EU is looking to ban US producers from using these world-recognised “brands” for their own cheeses, and push them to find their own original names, just as recent agreements have done the same in Canada and Mexico.
Cheeses may only be the tip of the iceberg in negotiations, as EU diplomats may also push the US to recognise that Black Forest ham must be produced around the Black Forest in Germany, and cumberland sausages must be produced around Cumbria in the UK.
US producers are already concerned about any proposals that would force them to change the name of their products, and a bipartisan group of 55 senators this week wrote to US Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking them not to agree to any such proposals by the EU.
Large food corporations, such as Kraft, have been particularly vocal n their opposition to any such proposals, claiming that forcing them to rebrand their popular grated parmesan cheese product in the US would cause consumer confusion, and have described the protected EU “brands” as “generic” and not worthy of protection.
