I assume it's like the whole Champagne only comes from Champagne. Are their other sparkling wines that taste as good, I'm sure. But they want to sell a name.

Kentucky tried to do the same with Bourbon Whiskey, saying if it was made outside of Kentucky you'd have to call it something else, but I don't believe that stuck

I would rather buy the cheese without microchips

It's more a self-defense measure - while there are perfectly good counterfeit cheeses out there, if someone gets a really crappy piece or there's food poisoning traced back to a counterfeit cheese this lets them prove it wasn't their fault, thus avoiding a hit to the brand reputation and/or avoid liability.

Not exactly a great solution imho, but it does make sense from a certain perspective. AFAIK they're sticking the chips in the wax/rind not the cheese itself, which does improve things slightly.

if it's cheese, it's real, lol- like "fake boobs are real enough, if i can touch them they're real" but the whole point of DOC or whatever regional protections Europe puts in place I think are about supporting the economies of the region as much as guaranteeing authenticity... the microchips make sense in that context... if someone can fake a wheel of parmesan and disrupt the supply, it will affect demand for the legitimate product and take a customer away from the region the DOC/DOP was meant to protect in the first place. Or just ignore me, honestly I don't have a dog in this race and I'm not even 100% sure I'm right

DRM: Dairy Rind Management

Probably cheaper too

The problem with parm is that "fake parm" can just be literally the exact same product, but just made outside the borders of the legally defined region, or even made within the region with the same methods, but not under the control of "big cheese". It can still be a high quality product.

Counterfeit honey is a big problem. Honey is mostly glucose and fructose, which you can just buy. You can detect a lack of the pollen you'd expect in real honey, but that only makes it so that you can thin out real stuff. There's other methods to detect it, but it's on ongoing arms race. Buy honey from local beekeepers you trust, if you can. P.s., there idea that local honey helps with allergies is bunk because allergies are typically caused by windborne pollen, which bees dont collect.

Maple syrup has similar issues.

Seafood and truffles are commonly "fake", as in substituted with cheaper stuff.

Not "counterfeit", but a similar problem in Mexico is that the cartels have gotten into the avocado industry.

Funny I always use Grana Padano because I'm poor now I will start saying is because I support OSS

It is hilarious to me to watch people freak out about micro plastics in their Tupperware or whatever when the vast majority are coming from their Lululemon tights and SUV tires.

This is our generations 'lead in everything'.

mods this one right here

i don't care what you do with your cheese behind closed doors and i will fight to the death for your right to do it but please be less creepy about it

It's probably something like an RFID tag that you can scan to check if the cheese is authentic.

A bit over 2.

And during the time it passes through you, you're briefly authentic parmesan cheese.

Basically passes through, yes