Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ten percent of the world’s Emmentaler Switzerland cheese is fake, and starting this month, the Swiss government is going after the pirated versions, with a new tool in hand. DNA tests developed by the federal research stations office, Agroscope, can identify cheeses that are not made with a live bacteria that has been delivered to certified cheesemakers since January 2011.
The cheese must sit for four months before it is sold, so the first cheeses from this winter’s batch are starting to show up in shops and supermarkets now.
Real-thing Emmentaler, the famously holey Swiss cheese, is protected by an AOC (appellation d’origine controlée), but this hasn’t been enough to keep people from copying it and using the name. Agroscope began a programme in 2005 to develop and deliver live bacteria for a number of milk products, including several cheeses.
The federal research stations have several related projects, including one to determine the geographic origin of Emmentaler type cheeses from around Europe.
The Swiss have been making Emmentaler cheese since the 13th century, according to Agroscope, at first in mountainous and hilly parts of canton Bern. The process was taken to the plains in the 18th century and today 10 cantons have a total of about 200 AOC Emmentaler Switzerland producers, most of them family operations.
Switzerland produces 32,000 tons a year, and of the estimated 3,000 tons that are copies, a large percentage are made in Switzerland, the quality control chef at Emmentaler Switzerland told Canada’s The Globe & Mail, which describes how Switzerland Cheese Marketing, working closely with the Emmentaler cheese producers group, will go after the fakes.
Emmentaler is made from fresh unpasteurized milk from cows that have fed on only grass and hay, with no silage. The holes appear during the fermentation process. Milk, salt, water, native bacteria and rennet are used; no additives are allowed. It takes about 12 litres of milk to make 1 kg of the cheese.
Swiss cheesemakers in general abide by a code in place since 2002 that bans artificial flavours and other additives.
Background, swissinfo video, 17 November 2010