Certification of cheeses and cheese products origin by EU countries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) utilization on European Union (EU) cheese market. Design/methodology/approach – Secondary data comes from the database of origin and registration. In total, 235 product names registered in the database for cheeses and cheese products were analyzed according to type of label and country of origin. To discover a dependences between the variables, χ2 test and contingency coefficients were calculated. Hierarchical clustering method enabled to identify the clusters of countries with similar distribution of products in the database. Findings – More than 80 percent of cheeses and cheese products are certified with PDO. Leading countries in number of certified products are France and Italy. Taking into account all product classes in the database, only 6 percent of all PGIs, 33 percent of PDOs and 15 percent of TSGs were awarded for cheeses and cheese products. A middle weak correlation between the number of certified products and the country of origin was confirmed. Research limitations/implications – The number of certified products is continuously increasing, their distribution between countries may change slightly over time. Only cluster analysis and two criteria of comparison were used. Practical implications – To local food producers, the findings provide a more deep insight to the EU cheese market. It could stimulate their effort in products certification. Originality/value – The paper brings findings about PDO/PGI/TSG utilization for cheese products in EU countries. There is not research study carried out from the same perspective.