Protected designation of origin is both the worst and the best innovation of the European Union. On the one side, it allows me to easily discern if for example a bottle of olive oil is probably going to be decent without having to do research or falling prey to fancy marketing. Obviously it's great that these local industries are protected and they are motivated to retain extraordinary quality so people keep picking them over non-PDO products.
On the other hand.. it's blocking access to feta cheese to all of Europe. Feta cheese only keeps for maybe a day and there's no efficient way to get it from Greece to European supermarkets before it's turned. Now that we finally have super fresh food in our supermarkets, feta cheese stands out in that it's simply impossible to get fresh outside of Greece.
Nothing stops dairy companies from making a similar product and selling it, but without the "feta" name. Which is exactly what they do (you can find many "white cheese" varieties in central europe, complete with a blue/white colour theme and ancient greek geometric patterns, same with wannabe greek yoghurt).
Of course they never taste the same, as they were made with milk not produced in greece, and without the generations of tradition and knowledge. Hence why the PDO makes perfect sense.
In the US they sell sawdust and call it parmigiano. This is a disgrace.
> On the other hand.. it's blocking access to feta cheese to all of Europe. Feta cheese only keeps for maybe a day and there's no efficient way to get it from Greece to European supermarkets before it's turned. Now that we finally have super fresh food in our supermarkets, feta cheese stands out in that it's simply impossible to get fresh outside of Greece.
I'm sorry but that is not right. I'm Greek and I make cheese, although feta is not my specialty. Feta can last for weeks in the refrigerator, and it can be aged for a year or more before it is sent to market. Perhaps you are thinking of a different Greek cheese? There are some varieties of anthotyro (a whey cheese, made as a byproduct of making feta and other Greek cheeses) that do not last very long. But, the general rule is that with modern refrigeration technology most cheese, from most countries, can travel around Europe without trouble.
"Fresh" feta is also a bit of a misconception. Traditionally, feta is aged in wooden barrels, in 18 degrees Celsius. In modern days, market forces limit the aging period to the absolute minimum of three months, but you can still find plenty of traditional producers who age their feta for a lot longer. When we're talking about cheese, "fresh" refers more to the taste and organoleptic characteristics of the product, rather than how soon it is consumed after production. So three-month old feta cheese will often be referred to as "fresh" even if it's ... three months old.
In my understanding, what really blocked "access to feta cheese to all of Europe" was, for a long time, the production of cheese called "feta" by French, German and Danish companies, who made "feta" with cheap, industrially bred cow's milk, until the PDO for Greek feta was established. Those inferior "feta" cheeses confused European consumers, for whom after all feta is not a tradition and they can't be expected to know what feta is supposed to be like, and contrived to keep the real stuff out of the European market.
Of course, if you ask me, the kind of fully PDO feta that can be found in most European markets today is not much better than the cow's milk "feta" made by those non-Greek producers, even if it's made in Greece and while (nominally) respecting the PDO regulations, but that's another, and vary painful discussion. Suffice it to say that adulteration of milk for feta with cow's milk bought in the cheap from other Balkan countries is a thing.
It definitely is feta, but it's old. It's also definitely good, I don't think even Greek people would object to it. Obviously eating feta that's made the same morning you eat it isn't a feasible thing to always do. It's just not as good as fresh feta.
It's me again, Greek cheesemaker. You can't eat feta the morning you make it! At that point it's not even cheese, just slightly compressed and dehydrated curd. You have to wait at least three months until that curd tastes and smells like feta. For feta to develop its character it has to be aged for at least that long in brine, preferrably in wooden barrels that allow the characteristic surface cultures to grow.
You can eat myzithra the day you make feta, myzithra being a whey cheese that is traditionally made with the whey left over from making feta, and typically served at the dinner table of the cheesemaker's family. Now, fresh myzithra is a heavenly thing to eat and most people indeed will not be able to experience it, until they have the necessary connections to a handsome and intelligent Greek cheesemaker :P But you can buy even myzithra at the supermarket, thanks to the wonders of modern refrigeration technology.
Why are you saying that feta must be eaten fresh? I think you're mixing it up with myzithra, or some other cheese that's usually eaten fresh. Myzithra, or anthotyro, look very much like feta, and even have similar taste, since they're made from the same milk, and (if you make it the traditional way) by the same person as the feta.
Thank you! I think you're right and I'm mistaken. I'm basing it off one time eating a gyros in a residential neighbourhood in Athens that had a delicious soft cheese in it that tasted like feta but was not it. Someone told me I had to get it fresh, and I could never find it in supermarkets. I figured the Greek were hiding the good stuff from us, but your explanation makes way more sense.
I'll try and find Myzithra or Anthotyro next time I'm in Greece!
Edit: it sounds dumb since it was just a gyros, but this gyros was so legendary I'm still thinking about it ten years later, and I've been to Greece multiple times since then, though never again to Athens.
On the other hand.. it's blocking access to feta cheese to all of Europe. Feta cheese only keeps for maybe a day and there's no efficient way to get it from Greece to European supermarkets before it's turned. Now that we finally have super fresh food in our supermarkets, feta cheese stands out in that it's simply impossible to get fresh outside of Greece.