PDO and PGI cheeses in restaurants, here are the guidelines for enhancing Italian-made products

"Now it will be possible," said Afidop President Antonio Auricchio, "to make professionals in the sector aware of the importance of choosing and using PDO and PGI cheeses, and of following precise conservation methods to allow consumers to enjoy them at their best and to value them correctly within menus, thus also combating the problem of counterfeiting and allowing these authentic ambassadors of the Italian dairy tradition to be legitimately recognised. Enhancing the value of PDO and PGI cheeses in catering means guaranteeing consumers the possibility of appreciating unique, high quality products, the fruit of centuries-old traditions, even outside the home. If I want to eat 'Gorgonzola Dop', 'Provolone Dop' or 'Mozzarella Dop', just to give a few examples, I have to be sure I am eating that. When I was served 'taleggio di capra' I explained that this cannot be done. I always say: union is strength. We are the world champions and we have to wave the tricolour flags every day like when you win in sport. We must continue the fight against Italian sounding and our task in the first place is to search for top quality to continue to distinguish our products from imitations'.

"Restaurants and bars, as well as pizzerias and osterias, have always played the role of gateway to the culture, traditions, and values of Italy around the world and represent an extremely important vehicle for the enhancement of Made in Italy products," added Aldo Mario Cursano, deputy vice president of Fipe-Confcommercio. With the Guidelines, we will not only give owners of public establishments the right tools to equip themselves with high quality products, but also give consumers the certainty of consuming excellent food of certified origin. We must stimulate and accompany the catering world so that it can give due attention to our excellence. Catering is 'the home away from home', it is a different context from shopping at the supermarket, perhaps in a hurry. They are places where one can listen to the stories of the products and acquire information, which is then perhaps also useful for purchases, even direct from the producer. We must strongly reintegrate PDO and PGI cheeses into menus, from appetisers to trolleys, for this we need a shared strategy for the good of the country'.

"There is a need to protect our products. Fortunately, they are not at our level at the estrous. But they are imitating us more and more. We can make agreements with other countries so that they share our model of defending quality. But the other way is to spread the knowledge of our uniqueness,' said Minister Francesco Lollobrigida speaking at the presentation of the initiative at Cibus in Parma. 'In the world we must not only make everyone eat but give good food to everyone. This is our aim, to communicate quality. We have been able to do this in wine, we can and must do the same with the rest of Italian agri-food products. For example with extra virgin olive oil, which is not given the right value, and certainly with cheese. In catering, proposing PDO and PGI cheeses in the right way means making them known and then having them purchased, especially by tourists and abroad, but also by those Italians who are not familiar with certain realities. This is an agreement that is good for the entire agri-food system. It serves to grow the internal supply chain and also to redistribute resources'.

The Guidelines (downloadable from www.afidop.it) come at a propitious time for out-of-home consumption (+7% in value in 2023), with catering finally back above pre-Covid levels (+3.9%), but also for certified cheeses. "The 55 Italian PDO and PGI cheeses, in fact, with 590,000 tonnes produced in 2023, now have a production turnover well in excess of 5 billion euro, equal to almost a third of the total production value of Italian dairy products," say Aifi Dop. Exports are also running: "PDO-PGI cheeses now steadily account for almost 60% of the export turnover of national cheeses, for an estimated value of almost 3 billion euros (+11%). And 2024 opens with growing figures: in January, Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano (+25% in volume) were the main drivers; Gorgonzola (+7%), Pecorino Romano (+4%) and grated PDO hard cheeses (+16%) also performed well".