this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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Memes

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Laittakaa meemejä tänne.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago (5 children)

How the fuck do you counterfeit cheese? Do you use chocolate milk instead of regular?

[–] [email protected] 81 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The designation "Parmigiano Reggiano" is a protected designation of origin (PDO) in the European Union.

It means that to be able to call a cheese "Parmigiano Reggiano" a producer needs to follow a strict set of rules on how to produce the cheese, how to mature it, how the cows are being fed and it has to be manufactured in a specific area in Italy.

So if someone is making cheese without following the rules and sell it as Parmigiano it would be counterfeit cheese. Just like someone selling lemonade but calling it "Sprite".

[–] [email protected] 35 points 11 months ago (3 children)

And don't forget the "origin" part. These designations also include being made in a specific region. You could follow all the rules and exact ingredients for Champagne, but if it's not made in Champagne, France then you can't call it Champagne. Same for Cognac, etc.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

if it’s not made in Champagne, France then you can’t call it Champagne

Except for some wineries in the Napa Valley in California. https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/loophole-california-champagne-legal/

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Those European rules don’t apply in the US. You can also make parmigiano reggiano in the US.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Europeans definitely try to enforce rules like this worldwide, and AFAIK they're mostly successful, at least in developed nations.

I haven't seen illegitimate Parmagiano Reggiano in the USA. They usually just refer to the US-made version as "parmesan". I also live relatively close to Napa Valley and pretty much nobody here calls wine Champagne unless it's actual Champagne, other than a few companies that still use that loophole I linked to.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

If its made in the US is parmeesian

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I'm as territorial and proud of what is made in my country as the next dude but the lengths taken to protect some products, especially by french and italian are ridiculous.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Same for Lambic. For cheese and alcohol the region is important. All of these products have micro cultures or yeast in them. For Lambic, it's a naturally occurring yeast. If they allow other beers to be produced in that region, then the commercial yeasts will dominate the natural Lambic yeasts in the finished product, and you will end up with a different end result. So the regional specification is a quality control method to ensure you get the exact same microbiology as has been used for hundreds of years.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Just like someone selling lemonade but calling it “Sprite”.

In Australia, we actually do use "lemonade" to refer to drinks like Sprite, lol. We don't really have the American-style non-carbonated lemonade.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

You got it backwards. He meant that it's the same as selling lemonade while trying to pass it as Sprite because of the branding.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (3 children)

It's because the use of the name parmigiano reggiano requires that the cheese come from a certain region of Italy (or somewhere in Europe). There's nothing else special about it. Counterfeit cheese in this case is just the same exact cheese but made elsewhere and likely sold for cheaper.

Source: I work in cheese and also Wikipedia several months back

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm picturing you as an average office worker, but with a Willy Wonka-esque boss who has replaced all of the furniture with various types of dairy products.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Oh they work 'in' cheese, people always misunderstand and think they work in the cheese industry but their office is just often coated in cheese

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Did he say "Blessed are the cheesemakers?"

[–] Akisamb 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's not exactly true. If you make parmigiano you have to follow pretty strict manufacturing procedures to ensure that the cheeses have the same taste.

It's pretty much the same thing as a brand except it's not produced by one structure but several independent structures. The main advantage is that you know what you are getting.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Cheese bro.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Another way is by cutting the cheese, heh, with fillers like sawdust.

[–] gens 4 points 11 months ago

You steal the bacteria. Each breed of it makes different cheese.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago (3 children)

How is a microchip edible? Big as a sand grain? How does it work? How long has this tech existed? How many microchips have I eaten? Do they stop working if I eat them?

[–] [email protected] 52 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

It's not edible. The chip is in the packaging. Chipping packaging is normal and the headline is funny but sensational

Now producers have been trialling the most modern of authentication methods – microtransponders about the size of a grain of salt inserted into the labels found on the rind of 120,000 wheels of parmigiano reggiano.

Edit or it might as well be edible no one knows since no ones eaten cheese with the packaging

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

That's not in the packaging, it's in the rind of the cheese itself. The labels are also written on the cheese itself.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I'm willing to bet some people on this planet have eaten the packaging at least once.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (3 children)

into the labels found on the rind

The labels are directly on the rind of the cheese - not on a sticker or something.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago

its probably a rfid like thing made with metals that will just pass through you

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

If a tiny chip is embedded in glass or a similar biologically inert coating, and it's still small enough to pass your intestines without noticing, then it's edible. RFID can be very small, has no internal power, and only responds to a nearby request ping, which also gives it a few milliseconds of power.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I knew it! It was big cheese all along.

Big pharma was just a ruse!

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago

I’m not ok with big pharma putting chips in me.

I’m totally ok with Big Parma putting chips in me so I can get more parm.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (11 children)

If you've ever actually cooked with authentic parmigiano reggiano you would understand why. It's absolutely fantastic stuff.

I used to cook with just whatever old cheddar was on sale at the big box stores. Then my father bought me a couple wedges of authentic parmesan and pecorino romano for my birthday. I will never go back. It's not even comparable. I always have them on hand now.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 11 months ago (9 children)

You're comparing cheddar to parmigiano. Those are two completely different styles of cheeses. Try the same recipe with a parmigiano and a grana padano, and it will be much closer, and you very well may appreciate the difference in price between the two.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Implying that all cheeses of the same type are roughly equal is insanity if you actually cook. Even between different producers of the same region in the same country you can get wildly different texture, humidity, flavor, behavior when heated, etc.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

That wasn't the implication I was trying to make. I was saying that if you're used to cooking with cheddar, you don't replace it with parmigiano, and vice versa. They don't serve the same purpose in cooking. If you're cooking carbonara with cheddar, you're obviously going to be disappointed in the result. If you cook a carbonara with grana padano instead of parmigiano, you're like 90% of the way there, and most people won't know the difference. They're not equivalent but they're similar.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I mean I'm not surprised by it at all. Olive oil is a huge market for fakes, cheese is even more lucrative

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Betcha can't eat just 1 microchip

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

https://youtu.be/0FELnrRVIUc?si=EmuJdm0qMNkmz-JE?=10 Ok but there's only one microchip per 10,000 calorie cheese wheel. Odds are only one family member per holiday bites a chip.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Edible microchips, my favorite kind of microchips

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Combine it with fish to get fish and chips

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Plot twist: the chip gets stuck in an intestinal fold and Big Parma thugs beat the shit out of you.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

They aren't allowed to. You become authentic Parmesan cheese

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