Geographical Indications

The European dairy is the guardian of a unique culinary heritage and a cultural treasure: next to the legal protection of dairy terms, like ‘milk’, ‘cheese’ or ‘whey’ more than 300 designations of cheeses and other dairy products are protected as Geographical Indications through the EU quality policy and the GI protection scheme.
European cheese and dairy products are rightly perceived as high quality by the consumer around the world.
Dairy products produced in the European Union reflect the rich diversity of different traditions and regions in Europe. To help protect and promote the finest products with particular characteristics linked to their geographical origin as well as traditional products, the EU created quality logos, named “Protected Designation of Origin”, “Protected Geographical Indication” and “Traditional Speciality Guaranteed“.
This quality policy protects first of all the consumers around the globe: GI products must comply with the strict requirements established by the product specifications to ensure the premium quality. These obligations encompass for instance the raw material and its origin, production methods or ripening times & conditions.
This unique EU quality policy guarantees not only the specificity, but also the unrivalled qualities of GI products, like Danablu, Grana Padano, Camembert de Normandie or Feta, to name a few of the iconic cheeses made in Europe.
The EU GI protection scheme is open for products from third countries. This scheme has proven its capacity to help especially smaller production areas to uncork the full potential of their unique savoir faire and their specific dairy products.
The recognition of our European protection scheme through various agreements with third countries underlines the global appreciation of our protected dairy products.
The selection of which specific GIs should be protected in third countries should be left up to the Commission and the respective Member State; the protection level should be as close as possible to the EU protection level.
The GI system strengthens the overall image and the well-deserved high-quality reputation of all European dairy products.