You’ve heard of counterfeit dollars. You’ve heard of counterfeit luxury goods—handbags, things like that. Today, we’re talking about counterfeit cheese.
Lesson summary
Hi there everyone, it’s Jeff and this is Plain English lesson number 610. Here at Plain English, we help you upgrade your English with stories about what’s going on in the world. That means, you listen to us and you’ll learn about English and—as an extra bonus—you’ll also learn about the world.
And we go at the right speed for you. How do I know this is the right speed for you? Because there are two speeds: there’s the slower speed and the faster speed. You pick the one that’s right for your level. If you’re listening to the slower version and you’re ready to speed things up, then come check us out at PlainEnglish.com/Plus and you can get the fast speed of every lesson, plus tons of other English learning resources.
All right, today’s story is going to make your mouth water. “Parmigiano Reggiano”—my Italian members will tell me if I’m saying that right—”Parmigiano Reggiano” is a high-quality type of cheese made in Italy, using methods many hundreds of years old. But the world is flooded with counterfeit “Parmigiano Reggiano” cheese; counterfeiters charge high prices, but deliver a fake product. To fight back, cheesemakers are embedding microchips in their authentic cheese. You’ll get the full story on today’s lesson.
In the second half of the lesson, we’ll talk about the English expression “bear resemblance” and we have a quote of the week. Let’s dive in.
Fighting counterfeits, cheesemakers turn to chips
Today, we’re talking about counterfeit cheese. But before we do, it’s important to know the difference between counterfeit products and imitation products.
A counterfeit product is intended to deceive the consumer and it’s theft of a brand’s intellectual property: think of all the fake “Gucci” sunglasses or “Louis Vuitton” bags. An imitation product, however, is a product that’s made to look as much like the original as possible but does not present itself as the original. A counterfeit is illegal; an imitation is not.
What does this have to do with cheese?
“Parmigiano Reggiano” is a type of cheese. It’s nutty, sharp, and salty. “Parmigiano Reggiano” is a protected name and product under European Union law. Like Champagne from France, no food can be labeled Parmigiano Reggiano if it does not come from specific regions in the north of Italy.
Furthermore, Parmigiano Reggiano must follow the 900-year-old cheesemaking tradition from the region. The milk used to make it must be produced in the region, from cows that live in the region, and the cows must be fed only food grown in the region. Parmigiano Reggiano must be aged for a minimum of 24 months. There are other requirements.
Real Parmigiano Reggiano is delicious. It bears little resemblance to the powdery stuff in the grocery store or on the table at an American pizzeria. That’s because Parmesan cheese is a general category, not a protected name.
Parmesan cheese at the store is an imitation, not a counterfeit: it’s definitely not as good, it’s cheap, but at least it’s not pretending to be something that it’s not. The real stuff can cost twice as much as even high-quality Parmesan cheese made elsewhere.
Europe takes its food labeling seriously. If a product is labeled Parmigiano Reggiano, you know you’re getting cheese made according to exacting standards. Or at least you should know that. Unfortunately, counterfeits are a real problem. Counterfeiters label their product Parmigiano Reggiano and charge high prices for it, even though they don’t follow the cheesemaking tradition from the north of Italy.
How can they get away with this? The counterfeiters can do this because the food labeling is an analog process. Like a Gucci logo, the Parmigiano Reggiano labels can be faked and applied to the rind of any wheel of cheese. There’s nothing to guarantee that the label hasn’t been falsified. In fact , the cheese producers in Italy estimate that the market for counterfeit cheese is almost as big as the market for the real product.
But now, cheesemakers in Italy are fighting back . They’re using QR codes and microchips to authenticate their cheese wheels. Here’s how it works. The rind of the cheese is the hard, outer shell that protects the large wheels. A label made of milk protein goes on top of the cheese wheel. The label has a QR code that identifies the wheel. And a small microchip is inserted into the label.
The microchip contains information about where the cheese was produced. As the wheels move through the supply chain, the wheels can be tracked and registered. That way, a buyer of a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano can scan the chip and verify the wheel’s authenticity.
So when we talk about microchips in cheese, we’re not talking about chips hidden in the cheese that a consumer would eat. And since there’s only one chip per 40-kilogram wheel, it doesn’t directly protect or affect individual consumers. But importers, restaurants, and wholesalers should, in the future, be able to scan the chip to make sure that the wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano that they’re buying—and paying a premium for—is legitimate.
One more thing. This is food, so the label and the chip must be edible, or at least not harmful. The label with the QR code is made of casein, a type of milk protein. The chip is also harmless. It’s the size of a grain of salt. It’s made by a company called p-Chip based in Chicago. The company has tested the chip and found it’s safe for humans.
The company that makes the chips was also concerned—and this is funny—about people worrying that they might swallow a chip, and then someone could track them with the microchip! So like, you go to a nice Italian restaurant. Your pasta dish comes with grated Parmigiano Reggiano. You swallow a chip. And now a nefarious actor can trace your movements.
The company swears that’s not possible. The chips can’t be read remotely—you need to scan them up close. And you can’t scan one that might be in a human’s digestive system. And also, the chip would probably not be in your system for too long.
But to assuage public concerns, the CEO of the company ingested one of his own microchips. He feels fine. He said that nobody is tracking him except his wife—but she uses other methods.
Quote of the Week
Here’s a quote of the week for you. Thomas Edison is best known as the inventor of the lightbulb. And today’s quote is from him. He says, “A ‘genius’ is often merely a talented person who has done all of his homework.”
One more time, from Thomas Edison: “A ‘genius’ is often merely a talented person who has done all of his homework.”
Next up: we’ve got a hard one today. “Bear resemblance” is the expression in today’s lesson.
Great stories make learning English fun
