Growing ranks of British food given protection

Anglesey Sea Salt, West Country Beef and West Country Lamb have all had their Protected Food Name (PFN) status confirmed today by the European Union.

The latest round of successful applications come just weeks after Yorkshire’s famed Wensleydale cheese won its long battle for Protected Geographical Indication status, which means no other cheesemaker outside the designated area can produce a cheese and call it Yorkshire Wensleydale.

After a long campaign by the Yorkshire Post and others, the treasured cheese was awarded official EU protection last month. The creamy, crumbly pressed cheese is made from cow’s milk at Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes, North Yorkshire, and was first made by French Cistercian monks from the Roquefort region who settled in the region.

Some 62 food products made in Britain have now been granted protected status which is designed to protect a product’s authenticity and origin from imitation and fraud. Since new EU laws came into effect in 1993, the UK’s listed foods have helped contribute more than £900m to the European economy.

Farming Minister George Eustice hailed the latest additions to the list of protected products, saying: “Exceeding the 60th registration is an achievement to be proud of. Legal protection of the quality, provenance and reputation of British food will help small businesses make a valuable economic contribution both locally and nationally.

“We now want to help many more UK food producers who are thinking about making an application for protected name status to get their quality produce fully recognised.”

Twelve other home-produced foods are undergoing an initial assessment to determine whether they should be put forward for protected status.

Yorkshire can count two other cheeses and rhubarb among its protected products so far.

Swaledale Cheese and Swaledale Ewes Cheese, made by hand by the Swaledale Cheese Company in Richmond, North Yorkshire, have both been produced in the area for centuries and have Protected Designation of Origin status, along with Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb. The Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle Growers group based in Rothwell, Leeds, successfully achieved protection for their produce in 2010.

Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb is grown and harvested by candlelight in ‘The Rhubarb Triangle’, an area connecting the boundaries of Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford in West Yorkshire. Its special growing conditions mean its growers produce a sweet and tender variety of the crop.