Let Emmental battle commence

EUROPE – Cheesemakers throughout Europe are fighting a Swiss decision to establish Emmental as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheese.

If it goes ahead successfully, Emmental could only be produced in the valley of the Emme nestling between the Alpine foothills and the Jura Mountains in the very heart of Switzerland.

Leading the fight against the decision are German cheesemakers. German Emmental is one of the nation’s favourite cheeses and it has been made in Bavaria since at least 1820. Returns for the first half of 2004 compared with the same period of the previous year saw the hard and slicing class of cheese including Emmental increasing sales by 16.1% to 87,000 tonnes – almost exactly double total sales of the two nearest classes in Germany: cream cheeses and cheese spreads.

Dairies in France, Denmark and Austria also oppose the ruling. Cheesemakers in these countries point out that the name has been classified as that of a cheese and not a designation of origin in numerous trade settlements. These include the Stresa Agreement in 1951, and the PDO talks between Switzerland and Germany in 1967 that led directly to the name being standardised as that of a cheese from that year onwards in the international Codex Alimentarius.

There is time yet, however. MIV’s Dr Jorg Rieke has said that several years will pass before all the protests are even considered by the Swiss federal courts.