Opinion Feta accompli

In a cheesy contest, the Americans and Europeans have clashed over whether brie and feta, if called by any other name, would taste as sweet. This ripening battle threatens to derail the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership treaty currently under negotiation between the famous food-snobs of the EU and the infamously prolific snackers across the Atlantic — the average American consumes 23 pounds of the odorous treat each year, according to one report — who fry everything from Mars bars to butter. The bone of contention is the EU’s right to afford “protected designation of origin” (PDO) to popular cheeses like feta and gorgonzola. The PDO is a type of geographical indicator that means that a food item was made in a particular region using traditional methods. Similar products made elsewhere must use another name or risk getting sued. Americans believe these are generic names, and so are raising a stink.

When it comes to tasty local food, legal wrangles and piles of money, not to mention the threat of the local farming community taking up the gherkin to preserve itself, are at steak, uh, stake. No wonder that even the whiff of a compromise eludes these cheesemongers, feta up as they are with interference in every person’s ordained right to mack on cheese.

Advertisement

No matter how you slice it, though, food has a way of inflaming passions across the world. The French, so proudly protective of their cuisine, passed a law that came into effect last week which requires that restaurants serving homemade food say so by means of a special logo. All very gouda, but the law includes a clause that allows virtually any dish to be labelled as homemade. Even McDonald’s French fries would have made the cut, had the concerned ministry not realised an exception was needed for starchy tubers. Then there’s India, shielding everything from Basmati to Darjeeling tea, and the food of the gods — Tirupati ladoos.