The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood

The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood(bloomberg.com)

24 points by avirambm 10 years ago | 20 comments

creshal 10 years ago |

> German brewers protect their reputations with Reinheitsgebot, a series of purity laws first drawn up 500 years ago, and Champagne makers prohibit most vineyards outside their turf from using the name.

This is codified in EU law as Protected Designation of Origin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_indications_and_t...

Parmesan is protected by it, as are lots of other cheeses. Parmesan-alikes are sold under different names to avoid lawsuits (leading to interesting brand names like "Rapesan" here in Austria).

It's surprising the USA does not have similar laws.

extra88 10 years ago | |

This isn't about protectionist actions in favor of established industries but adulterated food products and false labeling about ingredients, problems that are more important to the public than geographic origin.

creshal 10 years ago | | |

> This isn't about protectionist actions in favor of established industries

Thank you, Tea Party.

> but adulterated food products and false labeling about ingredients

Which is also regulated for PDO products and the biggest reason why it exists in the first place. Why is nobody in the US enforcing labelling rules similarly?

toast0 10 years ago | |

The US doesn't participate in the protection of geographical names because it reduces competitiveness of local industries. For better or worse, these names have become generic, a wine maker can't be expected to write "a bubbly wine made in the style of the champagne region, made from grapes bred in the region", you just write champagne on the bottle and don't export to the EU.

Also, most of our placenamed foods are not really transportable: New York pizza, Boston cream pie, philly cheese steak, etc.

dragonwriter 10 years ago | | |

> For better or worse, these names have become generic, a wine maker can't be expected to write "a bubbly wine made in the style of the champagne region, made from grapes bred in the region", you just write champagne on the bottle and don't export to the EU.

IME, most US-produced bottles of sparkling wine that is informally referred to as "champagne" are not, in fact, labeled as champagne. (They are often labeled with terms associated with -- even if not exclusively so -- Champagne-style sparkling wines, such as cuvee or blanc de noirs or brut.)

wodenokoto 10 years ago | | |

There is a common, generic alternative word for champagne: "Sparkling wine", so your example is really far-fetched.

Meanwhile, several alternatives have had success with their own name, such as Cava.

brbsix 10 years ago |

This isn't very surprising. Nearly all crumbled or shredded cheeses seem to be using cellulose (or something like it) at the very least to prevent clumping. I've always suspected it would be more succeptible to adulteration. Even more reason to buy it in block form.

tonyarkles 10 years ago |

Am I just tired? Or do these two lines side-by-side imply that there's actually cheese that's 100% made of wood?

"The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could be Wood" "Some brands promising 100% purity contained no Parmesan at all"

(Later on in the article it explained that it's because some labelled Parmesan were actually mixtures of mozza and swiss, but I definitely was expecting to read about 100% wood pulp cheese-like products!)

Nihilartikel 10 years ago |

Life is too short for crappy hard-cheese. I can't think of a good reason to buy the pre-grated stuff. Not even convenience. Especially considering that it takes a such a long time to spoil. Just get a nice-ish grater and a block of the good stuff. 20 seconds of effort for something that actually has more flavor and subtlety than a sweat sock.

DanBC 10 years ago |

> Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Great Value 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese registered 7.8 percent

I don't get how that's legal.

solipsism 10 years ago | |

It's fully grated, isn't it?

hwstar 10 years ago |

Instead of fines and prison, let's bring back a modern form of the pillory for the CEO's of these companies. Build a cage in the town square and put these executives on display for a few hours with a sign out front stating the crime(s) they committed.

ganassa 10 years ago |

What you U.S. citizens miss is that the real Parmigiano Reggiano is made in a very small area of North Italy, with a very specific combination of grass, terrain, weather and manufacturing that make that unique feature you can't find anywhere else in the world. Just for example: if you move just a few kilometers outside that area, taste changes so much that, despite you are still in Italy, what you produce can't be called "Parmigiano" but, instead, will be "Grana Padano", will cost about half the price, and will substantially change the flavour of your food. So, please don't call that yellowish substance "italian cheese", that's not. It's american product or, if you prefer, fake food. Wood-based or not.

PhantomGremlin 10 years ago | |

No shortage of the real stuff here. http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/department/article/parmigian...

I don't buy it very often because IIRC it's about $25 a pound. It's even more expensive than that, because the rind isn't edible.

edit: I don't think that adding the rind to soup or stew qualifies as "edible". It won't kill you, but I'm not going to make stew just to use it up.

mcv 10 years ago |

Bizarre. Surely you'd notice the difference between Parmesan and wood? Or Cheddar? Cheddar is great, but a totally different kind of cheese than Parmesan.

But I have heard that many frozen cheese pizzas use fake cheese. Even in Europe. Because the ingredients used for fake cheese are in the pizza anyway, and if you put just a bit of cheese on it you can still put it on the label. The ingredients aren't false, but the stuff that looks like cheese isn't all cheese.

We grate our own Parmesan, but we don't make our own pizzas.

wodenokoto 10 years ago | |

wood pulp.

emodendroket 10 years ago |

The headline's a bit misleading.