On January 3, 2022, a report by Report Rai Tre exposed the contradiction of cheeses similar to Parmigiano Reggiano DOP produced in the dairy of the Consortium’s president, Nicola Bertinelli.
The investigation has forced Coldiretti-whose Nicola Bertinelli is national vice president as well as regional and provincial president-to finally get its act together. One year on, here is the history of events and theReport effect. #CleanSpades.
1) The king of cheeses, two centuries of fighting counterfeits
The king of cheeses is the protagonist of at least two centuries of fighting counterfeits and imitations. Not only abroad (1,2), but even earlier in Italy. Timeline to follow.
- 1834. The government of the former Lombardy-Veneto Kingdom extended the production of Parmigiano Reggiano’s first contender-the Grana cheese, itself typical of a restricted area (Milan, Lodi, Pavia)-to all its territories. And he rewarded scientist Luigi Cattaneo for identifying an additive (then ‘magnesia’) as a solution to prevent the swelling of Grana Padano during the maturing phase. (2) A real blasphemy for Parmigiano Reggiano, where the use of food additives has always been banned. (3)
- 1897. The Court of Lodi condemned a Verona wholesaler for selling as ‘parmesan’ a ‘Lodigiano’ cheese whose quality differs ‘like a pear from an apple.’ Chambers of Commerce thus begin to distinguish different cheeses.
- 1928-1934. Producers of authentic Parmesan cheese-produced for a thousand years in a well-defined territory with only milk, rennet and salt-formed the Voluntary Consortium of Parmigiano Reggiano, the progenitor of today’s Consortium for the Protection of Parmigiano Reggiano DOP.
- 1939. Law no. 396 clarified that Parmigiano-Reggiano is only that produced in the provinces of Reggio, Parma, and Modena, Mantua right Po and Bologna left Reno. Ministerial Decree May 16, 1941 clarifies that cheeses produced outside this area cannot be presented as Parmigiano Reggiano.
- 1955. Presidential Decree 1269 extended the protection of typical cheeses to Grana Padano (as well as fontina, gorgonzola, Roman and Sicilian pecorino). Analysis criteria were refined to prevent and counter fraud, including by searching for preservative additives (always strictly prohibited in Parmigiano Reggiano).
2) Modern times. The epic of ‘similar’ cheeses
The Common Agricultural Policy has generously fostered the commercial expansion of Italian PDO cheeses in the global market, to the extent that Grana Padano has achieved absolute sales leadership and Parmigiano Reggiano has managed to maintain a distinctive value. As well as better distributed between farmers and dairies, thanks to the different system of managing (albeit questionable) production quotas. (5)
Large dairies however-after deciding to derogate from free competition in order to impose production quotas on the Consortia, which they managed as shares and position rents (5)-they have been unable to meet the growing international demand for Italian hard cheeses. They themselves thus began to produce the ‘similar’ cheeses to their respective Parmigiano Reggiano DOP and Grana Padano DOP. Shapes of the same cheese but not branded or similar cheeses in the same shape and size as the two PDOs.
Consumers are thus often faced with cheese cuts that are almost identical to the originals, displayed on sales counters next to real Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano. Perhaps even produced abroad, as in the case of a cheese-like cheese, Italian sounding but Made in Hungary, reported at the time on this site. (6) Thanks to the work of the same giants who perhaps even participate in both consortia.
2.1) Parmigiano Reggiano PDO and similar cheeses, prohibition of conflicts of interest for board members
In 2005, the Parmigiano Reggiano PDO Consortium introduced a complete ban on conflicts of interest for members of its Board of Directors. Namely, the prohibition under penalty of ineligibility and disqualification from holding similar positions in competing product consortia. As well as:
‘a) the performance (both in Italy and abroad, either personally or through companies traceable to the candidate and/or elected councilor) ‘of the activity of producing cheeses belonging to the same commodity type as Parmigiano-Reggiano and comparable and/or competing with it,
b) participation as a member of the Executive Committee or equivalent body or as an executive with managerial functions in companies, including joint-stock companies, both of Italian and foreign law, which have, either directly or through subsidiaries, investee or associated companies, as their object the production or marketing of products belonging to the same commodity type as Parmigiano-Reggiano and comparable and/or competing with it and the turnover of the latter products represents at least 1/3 (one third) of the aggregate turnover of these cheeses in the subsidiaries, investee or associated companies‘ (statutes, articles 27,37).
2.2) Grana Padano PDO and similar cheeses, restrictions and quantitative limits
In 2018, the Grana Padano PDO Consortium in turn approved a statutory reform that prohibits board members from direct and indirect production of ‘white’ (i.e., unbranded) cheeses, under penalty of disqualification. It also introduces strict limits on their marketing, which must not exceed:
- 20 percent of the total sales of Grana Padano, for imported cheeses, and
- 5 percent for similar Made in Italy cheeses to be produced in separate premises and with equipment different from that used to produce Grana Padano PDO.
All consortium members must comply with these rules in order to obtain consortium grants (i.e., public funding) forexport (Bylaws, Article 39).
3) Report, the investigation January 3, 2022
https://www.raiplay.it/video/2022/01/Che-Grana—Report-03012022-1ad2f708-6e74-4be3-8726-f7279ac2f994.html
What a Grit! Sigfrido Ranucci and Rosamaria Aquino. Report Rai Tre. 3.1.22
3.1) Similar cheeses of Grana Padano Consortium members. Made in Italy with foreign milk
On Jan. 3, 2022, Rai Tre broadcast a Report report where it shows at the Brenner border the passage of tanker trucks, arriving from Germany, carrying milk bound for various Italian dairies. These include some producers of Grana Padano cheese. Moreover, the director general of the Consortium explained that that foreign milk was not intended to produce Grana Padano PDO, but rather similar cheeses. Same type of cheese, similar shape but different recipe, with foreign milk costing significantly less than Italian milk.
Dairy companies associated – rather than ‘members’ – of the Consortium, such as Ca.BRE of Brescia, produce Grana Padano (PDO) and at the same time similar cheeses, such as ‘Leonessa’. Hard paste, minimum aging ten months, vegetable rennet, foreign milk. Is it possible for a consortium member to produce cheese that is competitive with the consortium’s cheese? No, production (not marketing, albeit within the limit of 20 percent of the entire business of sales) is prohibited only to members of the Consorzio Tutela Grana Padano, not to mere associates.
Freedom of business and trade, GP Consortium director Stefano Berni pointed out. Under the guarantee of a third-party entity, whose controllers are appointed by the Ministry but salaried by the Consortium itself (i.e., the controlled). The Consortium does not shine for consistency in waging a battle against the free enterprise of a major Italian industrialist, Roberto Brazzale – for the brand name ‘Gran Moravia,’ an excellent hard-paste simile produced in the Czech Republic. Without then saying anything, as far as is known, about Emilgrana Poland.
3.2) The ‘like’ of the president of the Parmigiano Reggiano DOP Consortium.
Report journalists instead took on Nicola Bertinelli, the president of the Parmigiano Reggiano DOP Consortium as well as vice president of the national Coldiretti federation as well as president of the Emilia-Romagna regional Coldiretti and also confederal delegate and commissioner of the provincial Coldiretti of Reggio Emilia (which was commissioned back in 2015). He was also president of Parma provincial Coldiretti, until July 1, 2022. A protégé of ‘boss of bosses’ Vincenzo Gesmundo, according to some.
The president of the Parmigiano Reggiano PDO Consortium in his second term – in defiance of the Consortium’s bylaws (see supra, para. 2.1) – however, produced a similar cheese with vegetable rennet, which was also available in hard and long-ripened versions. “A Parmesan cheese in a vegetarian sauce.“, as defined by Sigfrido Ranucci of Report. Or rather an imitation of it, completely confusable with the Parmigiano Reggiano DOP alongside which it was displayed on the sales counters of the farm store. ‘The Without‘ … marking, or without … restraint?
3.3) The president’s similar cheeses, everyone knew.
Report
had the merit of nationally amplifying a news story already known on the ground, the production of similar cheeses by some board members of the Parmigiano Reggiano DOP Consortium, in violation of its bylaws (see section 2.1). As early as May 2018, the newspaper La Voce di Reggio Emilia reported the cases – or rather the caci, without marking – of ‘La Rocchetta’ dairies in Suzzara and Luzzara, whose vice president was Consortium board member Vanni Binacchi. (6)
The Voice and Reggio Report, back in May 2018, had also reported on the production of the similar cheeses, ‘Veggie‘ or ‘Il Senza‘, by the president of the Consortium Nicola Bertinelli (see screenshot from then, from his website). Everyone knew and the Consortium-as well as the agricultural confederations and cooperatives-and the press maintained a ‘deafening silence.’ And the issues were resolved in camera caritatis, with the support of a legal opinion from five years earlier where it referred to an entirely different matter.
4) The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium and the president’s similars.
Ridiculed on unified networks, thanks to the Report program, President Nicola Bertinelli self-suspended and immediately convened the Board of Directors of the Parmigiano Reggiano DOP Consortium by video conference on January 5, 2022. His proposal to settle the case ‘out of the blue,’ as was the case in 2018, was referred to the Consortium’s Executive Committee, which in turn on Jan. 12 referred it to the Board of Directors convened for Jan. 17.
In two weeks since the episode of Report, the Consortium’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors thus decided to ‘wash their dirty laundry at home’. Without involving either the auditors or the President of the Court of Reggio Emilia to whom the Consortium’s statute assigns the appointment of an arbitration board with exclusive jurisdiction, in the event of disputes, over the interpretation and implementation of the statute itself (pursuant to its Article 53).
The only voice out of the chorus was that of Mantua councilman Paolo Benedusi, president of the cooperative dairy ‘Latteria Agricola di Quistello’ (and awarded ‘farmer of the year’ in 2019 by national Coldiretti president Ettore Prandini). Who insisted on the incompatibility of Nicola Bertinelli. Producing “3 photographs referring to the product “Il Senza” for sale in December 2021 in the Bertinelli store at Centro Torri [in Parma, ed.], underlining the statements and modalities reported and inferable from the images.”
4.1) The evidence denied
Photographs produced by Councilor Paolo Benedusi showed packages of ‘Il Senza’ – presented to consumers as “Super supply chain cheese offer over 36 months for only €12.90 per kg!!! Also highly recommended for vegetarians” – alongside two wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano DOP with the branding prominently displayed.
The evidentiary evidence thus defeated Bertinelli’s claims that ‘Il Senza‘ was a soft cheese. Authorized, again according to Bertinelli, by an opinion of the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Forestry dated May 7, 2013 and itself worthy of further study. That opinion, although its subject matter was “Opinion on the cheese “Il Senza,”” concerned, notes Paolo Benedusi, not the cheese, but the conformity of the product labeling as presented by Bertinelli himself.
Nicola Bertinelli had also tried to justify the seasoning of ‘The Without‘ with the excuse of Covid. But Paolo Benedusi refuted such allegations. Producing, as stated in the minutes of the meeting:
- “photograph of Bertinelli “hard cheese” supply chain with an expiration date of 22/1/2020 and then packaged in the second half of 2019.” That is, cheese with a durability deadline that is two months earlier than the declaration of the pandemic,
- “documents retrieved from the internet (press releases and Bertinelli Company website) where the Company communicates that Il Senza is produced using the same ‘supply chain as Parmigiano Reggiano’.”
4.2) The acquittal of the president
The legal opinion recalled by the president of the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium to justify ‘The Without‘ (written by attorney Riccardo Manghi, dated March 26, 2013. See para. 3.3) reported, among other things, that “the Bylaws expressly provide for only one case of ineligibility and/or disqualification as of right, when the councillor consortium member fails to provide the requested information, or provides it incompletely or untruthfully, or still fails to cooperate with the investigation“.
The Board of Directors of the Parmigiano Reggiano PDO Consortium thus unanimously approved the following resolutions on January 17, 2022:
- “in light of Councilor Benedusi’s intervention on the truthfulness and correctness of the statements made by the President,” it was requested to “refer the file to the Executive Committee requesting consideration of the matter as quicklyas possible.” It does not appear, however, that this resolution has been followed up, a year after its adoption, in the stony silence of the 28 members of the Consortium’s Board and mayors,
- president Nicola Bertinelli was being rehabilitated, following his self-suspension, as he had stopped production of ‘Il Senza‘ as of January 1, 2022, and guaranteed that its processing “in unstructured formats,” i.e., the packaging of cuts of the forms already produced, would cease within six months. With a clean sweep for similar cheeses produced up to a few weeks earlier.
5) The Report Effect
The disruptive effect of the Report Rai Tre broadcast occurred ten months later, on October 11, 2022. When the extraordinary general meeting of the Consorzio di Tutela del Parmigiano Reggiano DOP approved the amendment of its bylaws, obliging the consortium members to ‘Refrain from own-account or third-party production of cheeses comparable or potentially confusable with Parmigiano Reggiano or competing with it‘ in Parmigiano Reggiano production plants entered with the relevant serial numbers and health stamps in its control system.
A majority of the 2,373 farmers and 305 dairies-mostly those in the provinces of Reggio Emilia and Mantua-voted in favor of the ban, which was thus extended to all PDO member dairies. The news was taken up on the Facebook page of Report Rai R3 with the eloquent title “Stop photocopy cheeses in Parmesan cheese factories.” There remains the question of compatibility between the roles of councilor and president of this and other consortia, which should retain their autonomy, with the presidential roles of agricultural associations such as Coldiretti.
6) Interim Conclusions
Parmigiano Reggiano, as of Oct. 11, 2022, is the first and only PDO cheese in Italy and the EU that has in its statute the prohibition to produce in all member dairies any cheese similar to, comparable to, or confusable with the king of hard cheeses. Report effect.
Dario Dongo
On the cover ‘Il Senza’ cheese, in the Bertinelli dairy store at Centro Torri Shopping Center, Via S. Leonardo, 69/A, 43100 Parma PR (photo taken in December 2021)
Notes
(1) Dario Dongo. Chile, US consortium tries to register Parmesan, Asiago and Mortadella Bologna brands. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 4.10.21
(2) As early as 1923, the Ministry of Industry reported the production in Argentina of cheeses from the names ‘Reggiano’ and ‘Reggianito’ V. Commercial News Bulletin. https://www.google.it/books/edition/Bollettino_di_notizie_commerciali/Dq7speyCu_QC?hl=it&gbpv=1&dq=formaggio+reggianito+argentina&pg=PA93&printsec=frontcover Ministry of Industry and Trade. February 15, 1923, page 93
(3) The food additive ‘magnesia,’ in the production of Grana Padano, was first replaced by formalin, then by egg lysozyme. V. Dario Dongo. Grana Padano cheese and egg lysozyme, preservative needed? The Italic anomaly. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 3.7.21
(4) Dario Dongo. Grana Padano DOP, the growth of the global leader continues. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 5.9.19
(5) Dario Dongo. Parmesan cheese, Grana Padano cheese and production quotas. #CleanSpades. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 5.2.22
(6) Dario Dongo. The false grain does not pass! MD-LD makes the pots and pans, but not the lids. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 29.3.15
(7) Gabriele Corsi. Similar cheeses, another blizzard on the Parmesan Consortium. The Voice. 19.5.18
(8) Dario Dongo. Parmigiano Reggiano, ‘The Amigos’ and criticism of Grana grossa. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 3.10.21
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
