This is codified in EU law as Protected Designation of Origin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_indications_and_t...
Parmesan is protected by it, as are lots of other cheeses. Parmesan-alikes are sold under different names to avoid lawsuits (leading to interesting brand names like "Rapesan" here in Austria).
It's surprising the USA does not have similar laws.
Thank you, Tea Party.
> but adulterated food products and false labeling about ingredients
Which is also regulated for PDO products and the biggest reason why it exists in the first place. Why is nobody in the US enforcing labelling rules similarly?
Also, most of our placenamed foods are not really transportable: New York pizza, Boston cream pie, philly cheese steak, etc.
IME, most US-produced bottles of sparkling wine that is informally referred to as "champagne" are not, in fact, labeled as champagne. (They are often labeled with terms associated with -- even if not exclusively so -- Champagne-style sparkling wines, such as cuvee or blanc de noirs or brut.)
Meanwhile, several alternatives have had success with their own name, such as Cava.
I don't get how that's legal.
I don't buy it very often because IIRC it's about $25 a pound. It's even more expensive than that, because the rind isn't edible.
edit:
I don't think that adding the rind to soup or stew qualifies as "edible". It won't kill you, but I'm not going to make stew just to use it up.But I have heard that many frozen cheese pizzas use fake cheese. Even in Europe. Because the ingredients used for fake cheese are in the pizza anyway, and if you put just a bit of cheese on it you can still put it on the label. The ingredients aren't false, but the stuff that looks like cheese isn't all cheese.
We grate our own Parmesan, but we don't make our own pizzas.
"The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could be Wood" "Some brands promising 100% purity contained no Parmesan at all"
(Later on in the article it explained that it's because some labelled Parmesan were actually mixtures of mozza and swiss, but I definitely was expecting to read about 100% wood pulp cheese-like products!)
