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ingredient benefiting from a PDO or PGI. As a non-restrictive example
of the concept of 'comparable ingredient', the Commission considers that
a blue-veined cheese (commonly known as 'blue cheese') could be consid-
ered comparable to 'Roquefort' cheese.
+
This ingredient should also be used in
sufficient quantities
to confer an
essential characteristic on the foodstuff concerned. However, given the
wide range of possible scenarios, the Commission is not able to suggest a
minimum percentage to be uniformly applied. As an example, the incor-
poration of a minimum amount of a spice benefiting from a PDO/PGI in
a foodstuff could, if appropriate, be sufficient to confer an essential
characteristic on that foodstuff. By contrast, the incorporation of a
minimum amount of meat benefiting from a PDO/PGI in a foodstuff
would not a priori be sufficient to confer an essential characteristic on a
foodstuff.
+
The
percentage of incorporation
of an ingredient with a PDO or PGI
should ideally be indicated in or in close proximity to the trade name of
the relevant foodstuff or, failing that, in the list of ingredients, in direct
relation to the ingredient in question.
103
3.131
The Commission indicated that on the assumption that the conditions above
are met, the EU terms, abbreviations or symbols accompanying the registered
name should be used in labelling, within or close to the trade name or in the list
of ingredients of the foodstuff only if it is made clear that the said foodstuff is
not itself a PDO or PGI.
104
Otherwise, the Commission indicated that that
this would result in the undue exploitation of the reputation of the PDO or PGI
and result in consumers being misled. It gave the example of the trade names
'Pizza au Roquefort' (Pizza with Roquefort) or 'Pizza élaborée avec du Roque-
fort AOP' (Pizza prepared with Roquefort PDO) as hardly giving rise to a
dispute contrasting with the trade name 'Pizza au Roquefort AOP' (Pizza with
Roquefort PDO) which 'would clearly be ill-advised, in as much as it could give
the consumer the impression that the pizza as such was a product benefiting
from a PDO'.
105
Where an ingredient comparable to an ingredient benefiting from a PDO/PGI
has been incorporated in a foodstuff, the name registered as a PDO/PGI, the
Commission takes the view that it
should appear only in the list of ingredients
,in
accordance with rules similar to those applicable to the other ingredients
3.132
103
2010/C 341/03 at 2.1(1)-(2).
104
Ibid, at 2.1(3).
105
Ibid.
