Pride of place

The EU Protected Food Names scheme: Making the most of Europe’s local food culture l What Protected Food Names can do for your business l From Gloucestershire perry to Arbroath smokies

– every British PDO, PGI and TSG listed and described l Food and wine matches to tempt your customers l Applications in the pipeline: Goosnargh duck, anyone?

In the new world of booming farmers’ markets, supermarket ‘local sourcing’ and a burgeoning Slow Food movement, the EU’s Protected Food Names scheme has been sorely under-played here in the UK.

As we report in this special edition of Artisan – which is being widely distributed among retailers as well as our usual small producer audience – when the PFN scheme was launched 16 years ago it was pounced upon by the food industries in France, Italy and Spain. They were eager to play up the special nature of their indigenous food products – products they had been boasting about and carefully guarding for many a long year. Britain, by contrast, could only scrape together 10 foods it deemed worthy of special protection.

Consumers have never been so receptive to the idea of ‘real’, local and traditional foods e: mick.whitworth@finefoodworld.co.uk for

Surely if the idea of protecting and promoting regional specialities had been mooted today, not in 1992, it would have been a different story, because the British market has been transformed. Consumers have never been so receptive to the idea of ‘real’, local and traditional foods and, capturing this mood, more producers are getting together to apply for PDO, PGI and TSG status for their products. Over the next year or so, more than 40 British specialities are set to join the 35-odd current UK PFN products. That’s why we’ve got together with Irene Bocchetta, who has been responsible for promoting the EU scheme for the last couple of years, to get its message to a wider audience. As the scheme gathers momentum, now’s the time to be talking Protected Food Names with producers, trade buyers and, most importantly, consumers.

EDITORIAL

Editor: Mick Whitworth

Assistant editor: Heidi Ruge

Project consultant: Dom Lane (Bray Leino)

Art director: Mark Windsor

Contributors: Patrick McGuigan, Charles Campion, Menna Davies, Lynda Searby

ADVERTISING

Group sales manager: Sallie James

Advertisement sales: Becky Stacey, Laura Cook, Sally Coley

Production manager: Patrick McCarthy

Circulation manager: Kate Robinson

Publisher & managing director: Bob Farrand

11›

Best of British Every UK PFN product listed and described

Rooted in tradition

Four heritage-packed foods in close-up

29›

GUILD OF FINE FOOD

Membership secretary & director: Linda Farrand

Director: John Farrand

Administrator: Charlie Westcar

Accounts: Darron Johnson, Julie Coates

Published by: The Guild of Fine Food, Guild House, Station Road, Wincanton, Somerset BA9 9FE

Cover photography: Kiran Ridley Kiran Ridley is a multi-award-winning photographer whose work has been published in The Sunday Times Magazine, The Times and the Financial Times, The Washington Post, Observer and Guardian newspapers, and in The Economist w: www.kiranridley.com t: 01963 824464 Fax: 01963 824651 e: firstname.lastname@finefoodworld.co.uk w: www.finefoodworld.co.uk

Reproduction of whole or part of this magazine without the publisher’s prior permission is prohibited. The opinions expressed in articles and advertisements are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, recipes, photographs or illustrations.