Cheese Law
Cheese law brings together questions about names, ingredients, production and trade. Follow the routes below to explore the wording on a label, the identity of a named cheese or the rules behind making and moving it.
Start here: Protected Names Explained: PDO, PGI and TSG: a first guide to the vocabulary of name protection. Available now. Includes The EU 2024 geographical indications regulation. Then read How to Read a Cheese Label for a practical introduction to label reading. Available now.
Cheese Law Around the World: The Complete Guide
GRUYERE reached an American legal border and lost its exclusivity.
Protected Names Explained: PDO, PGI and TSG
You turn the cheese pack over.
AOP and AOC: French Cheese Protection
Step into the limestone caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon and you feel the place before you taste its cheese.
DOP: Italian Cheese Protection
Look closely at a piece of Gorgonzola: blue-green or grey-blue veins thread through the cheese.
UK Protected Cheese Names After Brexit
A piece of Cheddar in your hand, four extra words on the packet: West Country Farmhouse Cheddar Cheese.
Generic or Protected? Parmesan, Feta and Gruyère Disputes
Picture yourself at the cheese counter, looking at a Parmesan label.
Trademarks vs Protected Cheese Names
You pause at the cheese counter, eye on the Gruyère, already thinking about supper.
Everything in this section
- Protected Cheese Names Outside EuropeIn the caves of Roquefort, France, sheep's milk cheese cures according to established methods.
- Raw Milk Cheese Law Around the WorldSixty days in the maturing room, then an unwelcome discovery.
- The US 60 Day Rule for Raw Milk CheesePicture a raw milk Cheddar reaching its 60th day of curing.
- Codex Standards for CheesePicture a cheese waiting at the United States border.
- US Standards of Identity for CheeseFirst comes the hard, brittle rind.
- Cheese vs Cheese Product: Labelling RulesCut the curd.
- Allergen and Ingredient Labelling for CheeseThe knife comes down.
- Can Plant Based Products Be Called Cheese?You slide a slice onto a burger and watch it soften, or stir it into a sauce until it melts.
- Cheese Analogues and Imitation CheeseYou lift a pizza slice and the topping stretches, apparently reluctant to let you go.
- Commercial Cheese Import Rules Country by CountryYour pallet is ready to leave the dairy.
- Cheese Fraud, Adulteration and Origin AuthenticationYou pick up a cheese labelled “sheep’s milk”, with a named valley lending a little romance to the wrapper.