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The protection of Geographical Indications (GIs) allows producers to define common quality standards while highlighting the geographical origin and the specific quality of the product. Following the European Union (EU) regulatory scheme, GIs are based on a collective choice, i.e. producers themselves define the rules for the production process, the characteristics of the final product and the boundaries of the production area (territory/geographical area), all contained in the product specification (PS) that must be submitted for the registration (Vandecandelaere et al., 2010; Belletti and Marescotti, 2011) by national and European authorities.
Across time, PSs are subject to evolution and adaptation (Quiñones-Ruiz et al., 2018; Marescotti et al., 2020) due to the many pressures for change (Bérard & Marchenay, 2006; Bérard et al., 2016; Clark & Kerr, 2017; Mancini & Consiglieri, 2016), originating from factors both external (consumers' needs and preferences, technology and innovations, policies, climate change) and internal to their systems (changes in the structure of the firms, new and/or differentiated markets, collective choices). These evolutions may themselves be the expression of a more or less conscious strategy of local actors, and may significantly affect the very identity of the designation product (Quetier, et al., 2005),
The aim of the study is to capture the direction and contents of the evolution of protected GI in the EU, understanding what are the main trend and the reasons behind that in the cheese sector, one of the most important food industries in the EU, and in the PDO-PGI world.
More in particular, the study focuses on whether the trajectory of the PDO-PGI cheeses through the amendments to PSs is leading towards higher anchorage of the products to their territories, thus resulting in stronger links between the quality of the products and their territorial origin, at the basis of the very identity of PDO-PGI products.
The analysis is based on a review and analysis of the 116 non-minor approved amendments to the PSs of PDO-PGI cheeses (product class 1.3) in the EU until 2021, based on content analysis. We developed a database to manage all the information contained in the amendments, each of which may contain several modifications to the Ps. All these modifications have been classified, and the directionality and justification of each single modifications assessed in terms of territorial anchorage.
First results of the analysis will show what has been modified in the PDO-PGI cheese PSs, whether the modifications are leading to looser or stricter rules to comply with, the justifications brought by producers to introduce the modifications to PSs, whether the modifications imply a higher or lower anchorage of the product to the territory.
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