FRANCE: Italian producers received a blow yesterday in their legal battle to show that Parma ham sliced in Britain is no longer Parma ham.
The Advocate General in the European Court of Justice, Mr Siegbert Alber, found that the Asda supermarket chain could continue to market Parma ham sliced and packaged in Britain, despite objections from the consortium of ham producers in the Italian city of Parma.
The consortium had argued that slicing outside the area compromised the traditional production methods guaranteed by the Parma ham label.
Mr Alber, sitting in Luxembourg, also rejected a similar argument that Italy's Grana Padano cheese could no longer be marketed under that label if grated outside the Po Valley.
Findings by the advocate generals are not binding on the Court of Justice, but their opinions are adopted in most cases.
The case refers to EU laws that protect specialist foodstuffs by stating that only goods produced in a particular region using defined methods can be marketed under traditional names. Hundreds of products, from Germany's Dortmunder beer to Kalamata olives from Greece, are covered by the rules.
Parma ham producers launched court action in 1997 against Hygrade Foods, which buys smoked hams from Parma but slices and packages them in Britain. After a legal process that reached the House of Lords, the case was passed on to the European Court. French courts did the same to a complaint filed by two French companies that import Italian cheese. Mr Alber said a 1996 EU rule should be changed to make clear the slicing and grating did not have to take place in the region of production.