Parmigiano-Reggiano makers are putting edible microchips the size of a grain of sand into their 90-pound cheese wheels to combat counterfeiters

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 528 points –
Parmigiano-Reggiano makers are putting edible microchips the size of a grain of sand into their 90-pound cheese wheels to combat counterfeiters
businessinsider.com

Parmigiano-Reggiano makers are putting edible microchips the size of a grain of sand into their 90-pound cheese wheels to combat counterfeiters::Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano makers are using microchips to verify the authenticity of their products and thwart scammers.

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Hold up...

There is counterfeit cheese?

It's not Parmigiana-Reggiano if it doesn't come from the Parmigiana-Reggiano region of France. Everything else is just sparkling cheese.

Swiss cheese seems like it literally is sparkling cheese. The holes are the carbonation! 🤣

🤓

Ackshually...

The holes in the swiss cheese is due to contaminants and they've formalised the process because it turned out that their cleanliness standards removed too many contaminants.

(Sorry, I'm also a hit at parties)

It's Italian. Parma and Reggio are two Italian cities.

That doesn't sound right. Are you sure it's not just all Italian France?

I am Italian and am pretty sure.

https://www.parmigianoreggiano.com/

Even though somehow more people agree with you than with me, proving the point that it's important to defend the trademark.

You're not crazy, I was just fucking around. People aren't agreeing with me, they recognize I'm joking, and they are probably downvoting you because you responded as though I was being serious.

There's an old reference that Champagne isn't Champagne unless it comes from the Champagne region of France. Otherwise it's sparkling wine. It's become a meme (although the joke predates the popular use of the term "meme") to say X isn't X unless yadda yadda sparkling Y. I left the bit about it being from France because I thought it would be funny to be confidently incorrect about that, like all of Europe is French.

I really didn't know how much Italian cheese is known abroad. Usually the French specialties are more famous.

In the USA, parigiana is practically synonymous with italian food. We have this powdered cheese product that comes in a plastic can that sort of replicates the msg flavor but has a gritty feel due to an anti-caking agent we add to the powder.

But fancy italian cheeses are widely available as well, and many grocery stores carry proper parmesan, romano, provolone, pecorino, gorgonzola, asiago, mascarpone, ricotta, and of course mozzarella. Ironically, it's the areas where dairy farming is most popular where you find fewer international options, but that's just because there will be 20 local variations of cheddar.

How would we know you are really Italian without scanning your microchip?

He was joking lol, he was talking about it like how people talk about champaign and sparkling wine 🤣

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And olive oil and cigarettes and... Anything else really.

EU has lots of protected origin products.

Yea, many swiss brands have problems protecting their IP in America. Just recently Emmentaler lost its IP there, because Emmentaler describes a sort of cheese which is like our Swiss Emmentaler in America vs here in Switzerland only cheese from the Emmental is allowed to be called a Emmentaler.

Also for the Gruyère cheese it was recently announced the US will ignore Switzerland's claims. That despite the fact Gruyère and Emmentaler are traditionally made with raw milk, something that's illegal in the US.

It’s ridiculous that while we can’t protect our cheese in America they just successfully protect pictures of any apple (even real ones) here in Switzerland.. Well, luckily only in connection with technology, but yea REAL Apples…

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