EUROPE – The European Commission has this week said that Feta, the traditional Greek cheese, is to be registered as a protected designation of origin (PDO) product.

In June, the proposed regulation was referred to the EU’s Council of Ministers. As no objections were made, the ruling will now be adopted.

The news means that other countries in the European Union must change the name of their feta-style cheeses or stop producing it within five years.

Countries hardest hit by the ruling include Denmark, Germany and France. Since the original feta PDO application in 1996, they have argued that Feta has now become a generic name.

However, the Commission said that the name is not generic because production and consumption is heavily concentrated in Greece and Greek Feta producers manufacture the cheese from sheep or goats milk, whereas many other producers use different technology and the cheese is made from cows milk.

Both Denmark and France have been producing feta-style cheese since the 1930s, whereas production in Germany did not begin until 1972. Strict rules on the production of Feta were introduced in Greece in 1935. Denmark then introduced rules in 1963 and the Netherlands in 1981.