(Washington) After feta or brie, is it time for gruyere made in the United States? The French and Swiss producers of the famous Alpine cheese are trying to protect the appellation, but have just suffered a bitter setback in American justice.
Posted at 3:47 p.m.
A federal judge estimated last week that the term Gruyère had become “generic” in the United States, which prevents, according to him, to enter it in the register of marks to reserve it for products originating in Switzerland and France.
In a thirty-page decision, Judge TS Ellis points out that American producers have been making Gruyere in the state of Wisconsin since the 1980s, and that more than half of the Gruyere imported into the United States between 2010 and 2020 was produced in Germany and the Netherlands.
“Decades of importing, producing, and selling cheeses called Gruyère, but produced outside the Gruyère region in France and Switzerland have eroded the meaning of the term and made it generic,” he writes. .
Even the dictionaries do not all mention the geographical origin of this “cheese made from cow’s milk, with baked paste forming holes”, although it appeared as early as the 12th.e century in the Alps, notes the magistrate.
The inter-profession of Gruyère, which represents players in the sector in Switzerland, and the Interprofessional Syndicate of Gruyère, its French counterpart, on Monday notified their intention to appeal this decision.
For them, Gruyère, which benefits from protected designations of origin in both countries, “is carefully made from local and natural ingredients, using traditional methods that ensure the link between the region of origin and the quality of the final product ”.
“Cheese made in Wisconsin cannot replicate the unique taste of real Gruyere made in Switzerland or France,” they wrote in their original complaint.
On the American side, the players in the sector have on the contrary hailed “a historic victory”. And, in a statement, they took note of the rest: the decision “sets a precedent in a much larger battle over the names of food products in the United States.”
The European Union had tried to obtain protection for around 200 products associated with its territories (Comté, Chablis, Parmesan, Bolognese, etc.), during negotiations for a free trade treaty between Europe and the United States. United (Tafta) who finally stumbled.
In the absence of agreement, the case by case prevails: if the Greek feta or the chablis have already lost the fight, the United States reserves the use of the terms “roquefort” or “cognac” to the products manufactured around the cities. eponymous French.