Strawberries under Label Rouge or IGP as a guarantee of excellence

We are in the middle of strawberry season. There are different labels to be sure of the quality of these red fruits, which add color to our plates.

We all know that Spanish strawberries, the cheapest on the shelves, are also the least tasty. To avoid finding yourself faced with this kind of bland container, you should especially ask for strawberries of French origin. But here again, to distinguish the very good quality from all sources, 3 labels exist today: 2 protected geographical indications, PGIs for Périgord and Nîmes strawberries, and a Red Label.

Sylvie Delaurier is the president of the Association of Fruits and Vegetables of Lot-et-Garonne, a department where a third of French production is concentrated and which bears this Red Label, with 4 labeled varieties:

“Gariguette, tangy, is the first to open the season. The ciflorette has a musky taste, the charlotte has a candy taste, and the last is the mariguette, more elongated. The red label is the guarantee of having fruits at maximum maturity. All you have to do is bite them straight away.”

Sweet, salty, and even smoked…

Strawberries that are picked by hand. Note that a producer organization association – with the acronym AOP which is not, note, that of the Protected Designation of Origin – also defends the work of its 400 producers on French territory. Lhe year 2024 promises to be a good one, thanks to mild temperatures throughout the winter, which allowed a very high sugar level, and therefore remarkable quality.

After choosing your strawberry, all that remains is to prepare it, like the chef of the Inima restaurant in Bordeaux, Oxana Cretu: “Strawberry is a return to childhood! This year, I created lots of things with it: sweet, salty and even smoked… For example, a smoked sauce made from jasmine and strawberry, married with oysters: the combination is fantastic.”

Oxana Cretu is a chef ambassador for South-West strawberries. Nearly 75,000 tonnes of strawberries were produced in France in 2023, a quarter of which were under Label Rouge.