In its 2020 Corporate and Social Responsibility Report, Mr. french lactalis, the world’s leading dairy company, has an Authentic Products & Heritage section. In this section, the company states, among other things, that it “is committed to maintaining product diversity through know-how protection, especially for Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) products.” Lactalis itself contradicts itself, as the website of Lactalis International, which is the export division of the French group, advertises a product called “Valbreso Feta”which, as the company itself informs us, is produced in… France! In fact, the product is sold in different codes, full and fat free.

Although the product in question intended mainly for Arab states and in general, for third countries, it is also indirectly available in the countries of the European Union through online grocery stores that import it from the USA, where it was imported from France. Such a possibility, in fact, exists even for orders from Greece, as we were convinced by making a corresponding purchase in a particular online store. It is clarified that this is not feta cheese produced by Lactalis in Greece, specifically in Velestino, where SHM Hellas Pelion Tyrokomiki ABEE is located, which the French giant acquired in 2018 from its German owner Guido Weber. The company in question produces Greco brand feta, which is mainly exported to Germany.

The disclosure of this practice by Lactalis comes twenty-one years after the registration of feta as a “Product with Designation of Origin” and a few months after Denmark was convicted by the EU Court of Justice because it continued to export to third countries. country cheeses with the designation “slice”. As a reminder, in July 2022, the EU Court of Justice decided to ban the use of PDO designations for products that do not meet the relevant specifications (sb in the case of Denmark, these are cheeses made from cow’s milk in Denmark, and not from sheep and goat’s milk in some regions of Greece ) also applies to exports outside the EU.

The issue was known to the competent Greek authorities within a month, since the leading Greek industry, dealing with the production of feta and not only, sent a corresponding letter of complaint. In a letter found at the disposal of Katimerini and dated March 1, 2023, the fact is asserted with specific references to electronic supermarkets in the United Arab Emirates. The letter emphasizes, among other things: “The use of the term “feta” in relation to cheese products manufactured by Lactalis is clearly offensive and illegal. Obviously, this new “effort” is part of the logic of “investigative” lawlessness, which “hope” for the absence of any reaction from the Greek side, in order to then refer to the “tacit” rejection of the prohibitions of the Regulations. “For this reason, in The Greek company emphasizes that an immediate institutional response is required, but it remains to be seen if and how effective it will be.According to Kathimerini, ELGO-DIMITRA has already taken action to stop Lactalis’ circumvention of the law.

Feta cheese was registered as a PDO in 2002, and it even stipulates that the milk must come from certain regions of Greece (Sterea Hellas, Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace and Lesbos Prefecture). Milk is either pure sheep or a mixture of sheep and goat milk with a goat milk content of not more than 30%.