After a vegan blue cheese won the Good Food Award, panicked dairy cheese makers forced the foundation to disqualify it
After a vegan blue cheese won the Good Food Award, panicked dairy cheese makers forced the foundation to disqualify it
A vegan blue cheese won the prestigious Good Food Award, until the dairy industry forced the foundation to disqualify it with a rule-change.
You're viewing a single thread.
must've been the italians.
And before you ask, no it's not racist, they claim to be the only legitimate source of a certain type of cheese, or more, maybe idk cheese lore lmao.
I think you are referring to the DOP system? It certifies that a food with a certain name actually respects the history, quality, and tradition behind that name.
But you can always make up new names or use generic names. For example "blue cheese" is not protected under DOP, however Gorgonzola is. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgonzola
I have found their website https://climax.bio/, and they only advertize this product as blue cheese, not Gorgonzola.
However, unlike you have suggested, the DOP system is proposed and managed by the EU, not Italy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_designation_of_origin and a more complete list of types of protected names: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_indications_and_traditional_specialities_in_the_European_Union
Finally, the article states the rejection is because the lack of safety certificate, not related to geographical or traditional protection.
After initially being named a finalist, Climax Blue cheese was later disqualified by the Good Food Foundation, reportedly due to issues around one of the ingredients (kokum butter) not having GRAS certification. But Climax CEO Oliver Zahn accused the foundation of caving to pressure from the dairy cheese industry and changing the rules after the fact to disqualify his product.
"GRAS" stands for "generally regarded as safe" and is issued by the FDA https://www.fda.gov/food/food-ingredients-packaging/generally-recognized-safe-gras
I have found their website https://climax.bio/, and the only advertize this product as blue cheese, not Gorgonzola.
That won't fly in the EU, cheese has to be made from milk and milk is the excretions of mammary glands (though some countries have grandfathered in things like coconut milk).
And before a vegan comes around and calls the whole thing nonsense: There's been cases of salami pizza using non-cheese "cheese" but advertising it as cheese. If milk and cheese can be freely applied to animal and non-animal products then it's a given that the likes of Nestle will try their darnest to confuse customers to make extra profit. For the vegans: Each time you want to buy a cheese-like substance you'd have to double-check labels because you never know whether it's animal or non-animal, companies certainly will prefer "cheese" over another term because vegetarians and omnis are way more numerous.
I guess if you don't want to make up a new word for vegan "cheese" Tofu is a good option? "Blue Tofu" doesn't sound too bad.
kokum butter
...is apparently used in chocolate making as a cocoa butter substitute? Can't find any online listings for the stuff outside of cosmetics, though, so I guess it's not approved as foodstuff in the EU. Probably just a matter of going through the paperwork but someone's going to have to do it. The Foundation disqualifying stuff that can't be sold legally as food in the EU TBH doesn't sound particularly sus, though granted they might want to have a separate award for experimental food.
Sorry I think they specify that it is "vegan blue cheese", is that okay in the EU?
Nope. You also can't call it I can't believe it's not cheese
Hum, interesting, do you have a source for that?
Paragraph 24, referring to the EU regulation that I'm too lazy to unearth right now the ECJ has to suffice:
Furthermore, it is clear from that wording that clarifying or descriptive terms indicating the plant-based origin of the product concerned, such as soya or tofu, at issue in the main proceedings, do not fall within the terms which may be used with the designation ‘milk,’ in accordance with point 1, second subparagraph (b), since the alterations to the composition of milk that the additional words may designate under that provision are those which are limited to the addition and/or subtraction of its natural constituents, which does not include a total replacement of milk by a purely plant-based product.
I would expect the same reasoning to apply to "I can't believe it's not" type of deals but I've never seen that kind of stuff anywhere in the EU anyway, also before that judgement, someone else would've tried it if it was legal. Probably just general misleading marketing kind of deal, the same kind of strictness that gave us "serving suggestion" in fine print on a pack of trail mix with a couple of raisins and nuts in a bowl. The package doesn't include a bowl? Who would've thought?
Thanks!
i didn't know that it was an EU body, but i suppose that makes sense.
Regardless, it was a bit of humor, so don't think too hard about it.