"Vilco" > ha scritto nel messaggio
...
> Mi e' parso che Kyle Phillips abbia scritto:
>
> > Danish "Fontina," if it's made in Denmark and not by some
> > Dane in Podunk, is illegal.
>
> Our DOP system is worth only in European Union. So in the USA or
> in AUS you can find also copies. It happens for many foods, for
> example in canada "parma ham" is a trademark of a canadian, who
> sells canadian ham.
>

I agree that it can be done in the absence of a law forbidding it. However,
the Canadian can't export the ham to Europe -- a huge market, and getting
bigger as Eastern European countries join the EEU, and he's setting himslef
up for a fall elsewhere as well. Why would a Japanese or an Australian (or
anyone else outside the company's distribution area for that matter) want to
buy Canadian imitation Prosciutto di Parma when they can get the real stuff?
If you're buying an imported product, you might as well buy the real thing,
and this is especially true of products that achieve cult status. Much
better to work to establish a local name for your product. Then, all of a
sudden, you get tourists coming to see where it's made, and buying local
things, and staying there, and... The area takes off. Wine is the most
obvious example of this, but truffles are a huge draw in many Italian areas,
and there are people who visit cheesemakers too.

> > Fontina, like a great many
> > other European foodstuffs, is DOP (Denominazione di
> > origine protetta -- don't know the English equivalent),
> > which roughly translates as Denomination of Certified
> > Origin
>
> Perfect translation
>
> > , in other words, only the people in the
> > traditional production area who follow the traditional
> > production techniques can use it. If you're a cheesemaker
> > in neighboring Piemonte you can't make Fontina (not that
> > you'd want to, considering the richness and variety of
> > Piemonte's cheeses) and you certainly can't make it in
> > Denmark.
>
> Probably this "danish fontina" is all exported out of the EU.

I would expect the true Fontina people to put up a fight to stop the Danes.
By European law they could force the Danes to change the name of the cheese,
I think. That's why the stuff made in Germany (and exported) is called
Parmesan and not Parmigiano. They (the Germans) tried to get DOP status for
their imitation last year but failed.

Kyle