Cheesemakers experiment with microchips to authenticate Parmigiano Reggiano
https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2023-08-25/cheesemakers-experiment-with-microchips-to-authenticate-parmigiano-reggiano.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
So it’s Big Parma after all. They were so close
Les vaches causent l'autism confirmé ! And microchip implants too, they were right all along.
DRM cheese
Nonfungible cheese
Sure. chips in cheese. Good thing there's no global shortage on chips right?
--edit should have read the article before ccommenting. sorry. edit--
It's literally an NFC sticker on the outside of the cheese. I don't know why this is even news. It's literally a super common thing to track inventory...
So wait, the news is "to combat counterfeiting, we will begin labelling our products"?
The article doesn't actually mention that is just NFC/RFID, although that would obviously make the most sense.
Hm yes, rfid shortages.
(Did not/should have) read the article
DIGITAL CHEESE
Oh, for Chrissake. It's not a counterfeit. "Parmesan and Reggiano" is a genericized identifier in the US. Everyone in the US knows that they're buying a variety of cheese, not a cheese from Italy. If you want something from Italy, you look on the label for a "product of Italy".
Saying that this is a counterfeit is roughly equivalent to me saying that the EU produces counterfeit Wendy's food because Wendy's-the-hamburger-company doesn't own the Wendy's trademark in the EU. Nobody in the Netherlands going to Wendy's is expecting that they're getting something from Wendy's-the-hamburger-chain.
This is a cultural thing, in Europe we take these kind of things much more seriously. We take pride in our regional products and they're protected by law. It's not tied to a company like in your example, that we care much less about, it's more a matter of national or regional identity.
But this logic goes even further. For example, in my home country you can't label almond milk as "almond milk" since it's not actually milk but a plant product.
That's actually a EU-wide thing. All plant based drinks cannot be called milk in the EU (source)
Makes sense. Here it applies to every other dairy product that has "milk" in their name in our language as well.
Sour cream is called "tejföl", where "tej" is milk. So fake sour cream is usually called things like "frissföl", friss meaning fresh.
Similarly with butter or margarine, if it doesn't meet the criteria they'll call it something like "breakfast spread" or "sandwich spread" instead of butter.
Cheap hotdog sausages with not enough meat content are usually labeled as "pork fingers" or "beef rods" or somthing similar.
I've seen fake cheese labeled as "pizza topping", it was like half the price of the next cheapest cheese.
We don't have Wendy's in here
https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/wendys-locations-europe-netherlands-goes-restaurant
I meant more a franchised american Wendy's, not snackbar with the same name
How does a microchip help when apparently the name "Parmigiano Reggiano" isn't protected in the US? The article doesn't seem to differentiate between actual counterfeit that claims to be from the region vs. cheese that is made in the US and sold as made in the US. The chips would only help against the second kind. Also, the article claims that parmesan is one of the oldest cheeses of humankind even though it is less than a thousand years old while people have made cheese since the stone age. Personally, I don't really see a reason, that people in the US should only be able to call parmesan from Italy parmesan if most parmesan sold there is already made in the US. I don't think it really matters where the cheese is produced and it doesn't really make sense, to transport it over the ocean when it can be produced locally.
Unauthorized
breadcheese