4 ms·

If China could make cheese as good as European cheese, they would. PDO is not currently stopping them.

• bzb6 6y ago
  It is, because they would be unable to sell it in the first world.
  • lb1lf 6y ago
    They can sell it, but the PDO ensures they have to find some other way of gaining market share than piggybacking off the reputation the products they imitate have earned over the years. (Which, in fairness, equates to being unable to sell it if other people shop like I do - nine times out of ten I pick cheeses (to stay with the original example) I already know.)
    • arrrg 6y ago
      I would be so happy to find Parmesan that‘s not named Parmesan, just for some more diversity. For example, I would prefer to avoid animal-based rennet if at all possible, but there is no real diversity in cheeses with a Parmesan-like flavor profile made with microbial rennet (I know of one such cheese and while it’s ok it’s also no amazing) and as far as I know Parmesan (actual Parmesan named Parmesan) with microbial rennet doesn’t exist. There are probably hard-cheeses out there that have a Parmesan-like flavor profile and are made with microbial rennet but they are fiendishly difficult to find. The one I found I only did find because it markets itself explicitly as a Parmesan alternative with microbial rennet. But beyond that? And I can totally understand why cheese makers are reluctant to jump into that market if they can’t market themselves as that thing, even if they were perfectly capable of making that thing. Overall it’s a difficult Problem to solve with no easy outs I can see.
      • jiofih 6y ago
        Is it? It’s an invented problem. No shortage of Rennet even if meat consumption goes down by half.
        • arrrg 6y ago
          I think that comes down to different models of ethics.
  • yitchelle 6y ago
    If they can sell it to the Chinese population, they don't need to sell it to anybody else.