Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano makers are using microchips to verify the authenticity of their products and thwart scammers.

Sure why not? Add to the delicious medley of microplastics and persistent organic pollutants, what could go wrong!

  • 201dberg@lemmygrad.ml
    0·
    1 year ago

    There is a guy on YouTube called the cheese man or something who tries out cheese making recipes. He would try to replicate some types of cheeses himself when there wasn’t a lot of information out there about them. There was one kind, can’t remember the name of it, but he made it and some company from EU had him take down the video for copyright shit. Like these people have teams just scouring the internet for any reference to their cheese to be ready to sue if anyone dares to make a cheese similar to theirs. lol. I’m sure this dudes 2 small rounds of cheese and his few “curd nerd” followers was a massive danger to their monopolization of some obscure cheese 90% of people have never heard of or will ever eat.

    • Marxism-Fennekinism@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Related: The EU is super anal about names and designations. Remember when they tried to ban plant based meat patties from being called “hamburgers?” Even though the word hamburger is literally German for “of/from Hamburg,” in reference to its claimed birthplace, and nothing about the word implies that it has meat in it (English speakers sometimes think it’s referencing ham). This is 100% not to protect consumers or the environment but to protect businesses. If they gave a shit about who they claim to protect they would be going the complete other way, promoting and normalizing plant based alternatives to animal products.

      Same with plant based milks IIRC. It’s not even enough for them that they’re called “soy milk” or “oat milk” or something even though the usage of the word in that way has been in the common vernacular for ages. Only nipple juice shall be bestowed the title of milk in these fair kingdoms! Seriously, do they think consumers can’t tell the difference when it’s already spelled out for them on the packaging and plant based food producers actively promote the plant based aspect as a selling point? They think people are too dumb to read the huge bold text that literally say “plant based” or “vegan” right next to the product noun?

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
        01·
        1 year ago

        I remember literal international scandal between something like 5 or 6 countries about what can be called “slivovitz” despite it’s really a common word for plum brandy.

  • EasyDoesIt@lemmy.ml
    0·
    1 year ago

    the microchip is in the crust, so you won’t eat it, unless you eat the crust, that rarely someone does

    the counterfeit parmigiano is a serious issue, because you will get a cheese with a very low quality, with a milk that is not in a controlled supply chain from Emilia Romagna

  • Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
    01·
    1 year ago

    This is such a beautiful piece of news. Beautiful the way a hurricane is beautiful. Such a perfect combination of everything wrong

    • Marxism-Fennekinism@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      1. Contaminating food with semiconductors (especially food that’s expected to be heated to very high temperatures in some dishes, perfect for breaking down already non-edible chemicals into even more reactive pollutants and then actively drawing them out of the semiconductor to where it’s more readily absorbed by the intestines.) Look up some of the chemicals used to create the semiconductor effect in silicon. Arsenic is a really common one. It’s locked away in the silicon crystal and harmless when outside your body, but inside your body when exposed to the heat of cooking and then strong acid in your stomach, who knows?!

      2. Making your own product worse to own the counterfeiters. One of the biggest reasons for avoiding counterfeit food is the higher risk of contaminants, well now that the genuine product is contaminated what’s the goddamn point?

      3. Probably not preventing counterfeiters as in “they’re selling a block of flour and passing it off as cheese”, because you don’t need a chip to detect that. More like “it didn’t come from this very specific region in Italy by the established cheese monopoly, but it’s pretty much identical otherwise.” Protecting the brand and its profitability, not the consumer.

      4. Literal fucking food DRM. Remember when this used to be satire?