Feta

The process of “correcting the terminology” going on within the auspices of EU may sometimes seem ridiculous but is often fascinating. How to correctly name things? What are the characteristics needed for a thing (often: product) to warrant a certain designation? It’d be interesting to see the issue not only in terms of someone protecting or trying to gain economic interest. Over here, a long-time bread spread product with mixed butter (voi) and margarine called Voimariini was recently renamed Oivariini, for the reason that it was not butter enough to have that term (voi) in its name.

Yes, the EU is much stricter about the concept of “false advertising” than the US is. I read about similar rules for what can count as “chocolate” - much of what counts as “chocolate” here in the US would never pass the EU standards. Of course, one could also argue that such policies constitute a form of protectionism …

The reference to Homer is hardly “(unsubstantiated) “facts”". The Greeks eating Brined sheep’s milk cheese is noted in Homer in several places in the Odyssey.

Here in the US there have been some problems with Listeria in Bulgarina Feta. Also the Bulgarian importers are not just fighting on the name having to do with Greek origin, they are also fighting the ingredients issue. The Bulgarian keep getting caught importing Feta adulterated with cow’s milk. (Which is why people judge it as more bland, ironically a perference in the US where people often don’t know it should be soaked in fresh water for an hour or two.)

The Greek Feta is of course more creamy with a mandated 45% cream, where as US, Bulgarian and others are only set at 40%.

Here is a trick, soak your Greek Feta, it is saltier because by law it has to be aged longer in brine than the Bulgaria.

Remember, cheap cream cheese for your bagel tastes creamy too, but that creaminess is really blandness.

As far as the EU, health regulations are keeping out the Bulgarians so it is really about the French and the Danes. Teh frenchhave insisted on trademarking a massive number of foods and only started making Feta a few years ago to limit rouqefort prodution due to a mass increase in sheep milk there. The Danes use cows milk and their feta is like comparing kraft american cheese to aged chedder.

I guess what cheeses the Greeks off most is that in Bulgarian the term Feta was never ever used. their white brine cheese is “siline” (white in bulgarian) and if you asked five or ten years ago in Bulgaria for feta peopel would have looked at you like, whell like you were speakign Greek! It is only their export market to piggyback ont the Greek reputation that casued them to adopt teh term Feta.

sory for the long answer but I worked in a cheese shop years ago and never forgot my cheese.

Karl,

Thanks for the highly informative response! I never knew that Greek feta was supposed to be soaked! Or that the Bulgarians only recently started calling it “feta.” (I’ve even been to Bulgaria - but a 5 day trip isn’t long enough to learn the language.)

My reference to “unsubstantiated” was in reference to two things: The history of the term “feta” which seems speculative, and the use of Homeric myths as a source of authority for Greek “ownership” of the term. It reminds me of how the Greeks, Bulgarians and Macedonians all claim Alexander the Great (who lived in what is now present day Macedonia) as their own.

t we have enough problems with intellectual property rights run wild? Update: One of the other precedents for this kind of national monopolies of a kind of food I had never heard of: Feta Cheese. For more on this read aninteresting post by Kerim on the subject.