EUROPE – Producer’s of Italy’s Parmesan cheese celebrated on Tuesday, as the European Court of Justice ruled that producers using Parmesan as a name for generic hard cheese are to be barred from using the name.

To warrant the Parmesan label, the cheese must now be produced in the Parma region to strict guidelines.

A court spokesman said: “For reasons of consumer protection, imitation Parmesan manufactured in Italy is not eligible for protection under the transitional procedure for designation of origin.’

The decision comes after the influential Codex Alimentarius Commission delayed a decision on the use of the Parmesan name for two years, effectively stopping the use of Parmesan as a name for generic hard cheese.

Recently, the EU also ruled that the Feta name could only be used to refer to cheese made in some areas of Greece. The announcement was a blow to the Danish Feta sector, which is the biggest outside Greece.