Feta

History

The soft white cheeses pickles some, whose feta is one of the varieties, probably exist since millenia. They are traditionally produced, of the Balkans to the borders of the current Turkey. Some locate the origin of this cheese on the territory of current the Bulgaria or in Macedonia, but it seems impossible to affirm it concretely.

In works of the Greek antiquity, one finds many references to a cheese, as in song IX of the Odyssée . The cyclops Polyphème even passes to be one of the first cheese producers. After having milked its ewes, it put milk in addition to in skin of animal and carried out a few days later, that milk had become a solid mass, tasty and préservable. However, it is impossible to know with precision with which type of production it is refers here.

The word “feta” is a loan with Italian fetta (“section”) who would date from the 17th century, and which is probably due the made-to-order to cut cheese in sections. First known written mention of the word feta date of the 19th century, in the store of the usurer Greek, Stefanos D. Rigas, originating in the island of Syros.

As from the years 1930, a production of cheeses also naming “feta” starts to develop apart from Greece, and more particularly, after the years 1960, with the appearance of an important industry of the “feta” in Denmark, in France and Germany. At the end of the 20th century, the cheeses being assimilated to the feta are produced in the whole world, of Iran in Australia while passing by the East Africa.

The word “feta” is protected for the first time by a signed convention on June 20th, 1972 between the Republic of Austria and the Kingdom from Greece; convention which aims at protecting the indications from source, origin and names of the agricultural produce, artisanal and industrial. In this convention, it is not specified starting from which type of milk the feta can be produced. In 1981, when Greece enters the European Community, the name feta is not protected by the law. Between 1987 and 1994, Greece adopts laws with national range making it possible to control the production and the sale of the Feta. These laws exclude the recourse to the cow's milk to produce the feta, and define geographical areas of production of the feta.

Manufacture

In Greece, the feta is traditionally produced from January to May in farms or small dairies starting from believed milk, without additive. In the factories, the feta is produced starting from pasteurized milk emprésuré with fresh yoghourt.

After pasteurizebeing if required pasteurized, milk is salted and the cheese producer causes his coagulation by adding acid cultures. Curdled milk is then cut of pieces, in the form of cubes from 1 to 2 cm, then drained in a fabric and put in fontage for 12 midnight. The cheese, worked of rectangular pieces weighing 1 to 2 kilograms, is then placed out of barrels of wood or plastic from 25 to 50 kilograms in which the brine is added (generally with a content from 3 to 8%). This first stage of maturation is carried out with a room temperature of 16-18°C and lasts 10 to 15 days. A second phase of maturation takes place then for at least two months, to a temperature from 2 to 4 degrees Celsius and assigns its taste consequently. Its content of grease can vary from 30 to 60%, according to the mixture of milk. It is rich in Calcium (490 calcium Mg for 100 G), in proteins (17 G for 100 G) and in vitamins (for 100 G: 0,3 µg of Vitamin D, 250 µg of Vitamine has and 0,75 Mg of Vitamine B2.

In Greece, the feta is made starting from ewe's milk, or combination with goat's milk (the goat's milk must then represent less than 30% of the total). The “feta” produced by Germany and Denmark was generally made starting from cow's milk. In this last case, the cow's milk is filtered by a specific process, which has a cost less than the traditional method of filtering in a fabric.

In Europe

The consumption of feta in Europe is much more important in Greece than elsewhere: whereas the Greeks consume 10,5 kg of this cheese per anybody and per annum in 2002, the inhabitants of the other countries of the European Community consume on average 0,1 kg per anybody and per annum. The Greek consumers represent, into 2002,85,64% of the Community consumers.

Before 2002, Germany, Denmark and France manufactured 10% of the Community feta. Quantify disputed, by the French producer Lactalis which estimates the share of Greece in the Community production of feta at 57,5%. Always according to Lactalis the share of Greece in the worldwide production of feta would be of 28,75%. This battle of figures comes owing to the fact that the French group integrates, in the Community and extracommunity production from feta, the “feta” with the cow's milk.

The French production is:

In 1980: 875 tons
Of 1988 to 1998: between: 7960 tons and: 19964 tons.

NB: the share of the production of feta to the cow's milk is marginal in France.

In the world

The feta is also produced apart from the European Union, name not being protected apart from the Member States. The producer countries of feta, except European Union, are, for example, the Australia, the Canada or the the United States.

Bruce A. Babcock stresses that for the Americans, “feta” indicates a type of granulous, salted cheese and generally used in Greek dishes. The American feta is mainly produced in the Wisconsin starting from cow's milk. Annual production of Feta in the east United States of: 45000 tons. In Canada, the annual production of feta rises with: 4000 tons.

The problems of the geographical ascription concerning the feta are examined within the framework of the project of extension of article 22 of the agreements TRIPS ( Trade Related Aspects off Intellectual Property ) that OMC seeks to set up.

Name feta, stake of a European legal battle

January 11th, 1994, a denomination of origin “feta” is created and protected in Greece. January 21st of the same year, the Greek administration requires earlier so that the name “feta” becomes a protected Label of origin in accordance with the European payment 2081/92, adopted two years by the European Community. The charged commission to examine this request establishes initially that this name did not become generic, thanks to a survey which establishes that the word feta is well associated by the European consumers with a Greek origin. The commission decides on June 12th, 1996 (payment N° 1107/96) to grant protection to name feta, like with nineteen other Greek cheeses. In reaction, Denmark, Germany and France, which produce significant amounts of this type of cheese under the name feta, seize the European court of justice to cancel the protected label of origin established by Greece. The arguments of the three plaintiffs are that the feta does not satisfy the requirements established by the European payment of 1992 on the AOP, and that the name feta became generic. In 1999, the CEJ decides to cancel AOP feta because the commission would not have sufficiently examined the requirements by the European payment 2081/92. Starting from this legal decision, name feta thus becomes again free in Europe, except between Austria and Greece, whose bilateral agreement of 1972 is always valid. The Member States of the EU intended however to defend the indications of origin of Europe (AOP) during the Cycle of Doha vis-a-vis the other members of OMC.

Appendices

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