No feta in Yorkshire, rules EU (From Gazette & Herald)

No feta in Yorkshire, rules EU

YORKSHIRE cheese company Shepherd's Purse has lost the right to call its best-selling cheese feta after a renewed European Union ruling.

The dairy and sheep milk cheese company based in Thirsk now has five years to rebrand and remarket the popular cheese sold in supermarkets up and down the country. The blow has come despite three years of hard campaigning by local MPs and MEPs after an first decision to call for the ban was revoked.

However, a 1,500-page report including legal, historical, cultural, political, social, economic and scientific reasons for Greece to retain sole rights to the name has now persuaded bureaucrats to return the ruling.

"The company had just finished a comprehensive and costly remarketing exercise when they were told the ban was back on," said a Shepherd's Cheese spokesperson.

"Now they will have to spend more money re-branding what is their best seller. Five years sounds like a long time but for a producer it isn't.

"What should we call it? Will customers asking for it be told it's no longer available? This is a serious decision which will really affect us as a small Yorkshire producer.

"We are very disappointed and unhappy with the decision and the way it has been handled by the EU."

French feta cheesemakers are also affected by the ban and following a number of demonstrations the French government is to lobby the European Court of Justice to reverse the ban.

Updated: 11:06 Wednesday, January 08, 2003