Sorry for the inconvenience.
Search again what you are looking for
Trending
Special Products
Feta
Feta or Feta (in modern Greek: φέτα) refers to a cheese curd in brine originating in Greece. The name of this cheese is borrowed from Italian fetta ("slice") which dates back to the 17th century. The name feta associated with cheese is attested in the 19th century. It characterizes a cheese produced according to precise techniques. This type of cheese is traditionally made from goat or sheep milk.
During the 20th century, a production of similar cheeses developed elsewhere in Europe, then in the world. In the European Union, the name "feta" has been a protected designation of origin (PDO) and a protected geographical indication (PGI) since October 14, 2002.
Feta is, along with tomato, cucumber, onions and olive oil, one of the ingredients in Greek salad (Horiatiki). It is also found in many other traditional Greek dishes.
History
White cheeses in brine, of which feta is one of the varieties, have probably been around for millennia. They are traditionally produced from the Balkans to the borders of present-day Turkey. Some people locate the origin of this cheese in the territory of present-day Bulgaria or in Macedonia, but it seems impossible to say concretely.
There are many references to cheese in works from ancient Greece, such as in song IX of the Odyssey. Cyclops Polyphemus is even said to be one of the first producers of cheese. After milking his sheep, he put the milk in an animal skin bottle and realized a few days later that the milk had become a solid, tasty and preservable mass. However, it is impossible to know exactly what type of production is referred to here.
Curdled cheese in brine is only really attested in Byzantine times, under the term "prosphatos" (πρόσφατος), and is then mainly associated with Crete. An Italian visitor to Candia in 1494 very clearly describes its storage in brine.
The word "feta" is borrowed from the Italian fetta ("slice") which dates from the 17th century, and is probably due to the way cheese is cut into slices. The first known written mention of the word feta dates from the 19th century, in the store of the Greek usurer, Stefanos D. Rigas, from the island of Syros.
From the 1930s, a production of cheese also called "feta" began to develop outside Greece, and more particularly, after the 1960s, with the emergence of a major "feta" industry in Denmark. , in France and Germany. At the end of the 20th century, feta-like cheeses were produced all over the world, from Iran to Australia to East Africa.
The word "feta" is protected for the first time by an agreement signed on June 20, 1972 between the Republic of Austria and the Kingdom of Greece; convention which aims to protect the indications of source, origin and names of agricultural, artisanal and industrial products. In this agreement, it is not specified from what type of milk feta can be produced. In 1981, when Greece joined the European Community, the name feta was not protected by law. Between 1987 and 1994, Greece adopted national laws to regulate the production and sale of feta. These laws exclude the use of cow's milk to produce feta, and define geographic areas for feta production.
From 1994 a legal battle began in Europe to determine whether the name feta could be protected or whether it had on the contrary become generic. A final decision in favor of the protection of the name feta was finally taken in 2002, which grants Greece the protection of the name feta and sets the rules for obtaining this designation.
Manufacturing
photograph of a slice of a cottage cheese and green leaves
Feta and basil.
In Greece, feta is traditionally produced from January to May in farms or small dairies from raw milk, without additives. In factories, feta is produced from pasteurized milk with the addition of fresh yogurt.
After being optionally pasteurized, the milk is heated to a temperature of 30−35 ° C, then the milk is salted and the cheese producer causes its coagulation (a step called "curdling") by adding acid cultures. The curd is then cut into pieces, in the form of cubes of 1 to 2 cm, then drained in a cloth and put in a fontage for 24 hours. The cheese, shaped into rectangular pieces weighing 1 to 2 kilograms, is then placed in wooden or plastic barrels of 25 to 50 kg in which the brine is added (usually at a content of 3 to 8%). This first maturation stage takes place at an ambient temperature of 16-18 ° C and lasts 10 to 15 days. A second maturation stage then takes place for at least two months, at a temperature of 2 to 4 ° C.
Feta is white and it dries up quickly when removed from its brine. Depending on the ripening, its consistency varies from soft to medium-hard (then developing a strong and pungent flavor). Its salt content is variable (between 1.8 and 2.75% salt) and affects its taste accordingly. Its fat content can vary from 30 to 60%, depending on the milk mixture. It is rich in calcium (490 mg of calcium per 100 g), protein (17 g per 100 g) and vitamins (per 100 g: 0.3 µg of vitamin D, 250 µg of vitamin A and 0.75 mg vitamin B2).
In Greece, feta is made from sheep's milk, or in combination with goat's milk (goat's milk must then represent less than 30% of the total). The "feta" produced by Germany and Denmark was most often made from cow's milk. In the latter case, cow's milk is filtered by a specific process, which has a lower cost than the traditional method of filtering through tissue.
PH, humidity and salt concentration values during the ripening of the Feta Measurement
After curdling After 15 days After 30 days After 90 days
pH 6.45 5.19 4.59 4.56
Humidity (%) ND 54.6 54.25 50.4
Salt (NaCl) (%) ND 3.44 3.8 4.01
Feta and other cheese curds in brine
From the 19th century, the word feta in Greece referred to cheese produced from sheep's milk or a mixture of sheep's milk and goat's milk, using traditional methods of milk coagulation3. Other countries, particularly in the Balkans and in the eastern Mediterranean basin, produce cheeses similar to feta: Telemea in Romania, Bjalo Salamureno Sirene in Bulgaria, Beyaz peynir in Turkey, Halloumi in Cyprus, the Domiati in Egypt, the Akkavi in Syria and Lebanon or even the Beli sir u kriskama in the former Yugoslavia.
Feta is the most famous of the cheeses in brine; this international recognition being due to the emigration of the Greeks, who brought with them their culinary customs to various countries.
Feta industry
Feta and olives.
According to a report by the US administration published in 2005, world demand for feta is 450,000 tonnes per year, of which 250,000 are produced in Greece.
In Europe
The consumption of feta in Europe is much higher in Greece than elsewhere: while the Greeks consumed 10.5 kg of this cheese per person per year in 2002, the inhabitants of the other countries of the European community consume on average 0, 1 kg per person per year. Greek consumers represented, in 2002, 85.64% of Community consumers.
The production of feta started in the 1930s in Denmark and France. German production started in 1972.
Before 2002, Germany, Denmark and France made 10% of Community feta. This figure is disputed by the French industrial processor Lactalis, which estimates Greece's share in Community production of feta at 57.5%. Also according to Lactalis, the share of Greece in the world manufacture of feta would be 28.75%. This battle of numbers stems from the fact that the French group incorporates, in the Community and non-Community production of feta, “feta” made from cow's milk.
Greek production figures Date Production (in tonnes)
1931 25,000
2002 115,000
2005 120 000
Danish production figures Date Production (in tonnes)
1967 133
1971 1,000
1975 9,968
1989 110 932
1998 27 640
German production figures Year Production (in tonnes)
1972 78
1977 5,000
1980 15,000
1985 24,000
From 1985 to 2002 between 19,757 and 39,201 tonnes
French production is:
In 1980: 875 tonnes
From 1988 to 1998: between 7,960 tonnes and 19,964 tonnes.
NB: the share of cow's milk feta production is marginal in France.
In the world
Feta is also produced outside the European Union, the name not being protected outside of the member states. Feta producing countries, outside the European Union, are, for example, Australia, Canada or the United States.
Bruce A. Babcock points out that for Americans, "feta" refers to a type of grainy, salty cheese that is commonly used in Greek dishes. The majority of American feta is produced in Wisconsin from cow's milk. The annual production of Feta in the United States is 45,000 tonnes. In Canada, the annual production of feta amounts to 4000 tonnes.
The issue of geographical indication for feta is being examined in the context of the proposed extension of Article 22 of the TRIPS ((en) Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property) agreements that the WTO seeks to put in place.
The name feta, a stake in a European legal battle
On January 11, 1994, a denomination of origin "feta" was created and protected in Greece. On January 21 of the same year, the Greek administration requested that the name "feta" become a Protected Designation of Origin in accordance with European regulation 2081/92, adopted two years earlier by the European Community. The commission responsible for examining the request first found that the name had not become generic, thanks to a survey which established that the word feta is indeed associated by European consumers with a Greek origin. The committee decided on June 12, 1996 (Regulation No. 1107/96) to grant protection to the appellation feta, as well as to nineteen other Greek cheeses. In reaction, Denmark, Germany and France, which produce large quantities of this type of cheese under the name feta, are taking the European Communities court to overturn the protected designation of origin established by Greece. The arguments of the three complainants are that feta does not meet the necessary conditions established by the European PDO regulation of 1992, and that the name feta has become generic. In 1999, the ECJ decided to cancel the feta PDO because the committee had not sufficiently examined the conditions required by European regulation 2081/92. From this court decision, the name feta therefore becomes free again in Europe, except between Austria and Greece, whose bilateral agreement of 1972 is still valid.
The European Commission orders the opening of a new scientific investigation which leads, on October 14, 2002, to the reintegration of feta in the table of PDOs as a Greek product (European regulation N ° 1829/2002). The scientific commission charged with re-examining the feta dossier gathered all the data on the production and consumption of feta in Europe, in order to determine whether the name feta was generic or not. The commission's research showed that the name feta "was not used as a common name synonymous with cottage cheese in brine. The care with which operators [in this market] refer to the country of origin and try to avoid confusion when using the designation is significant. In consumer perception, the name feta still evokes a Greek origin and has therefore not become a common and generic name in the community […]. "
Germany and Denmark (applicants) are seeking to overturn this decision. The epilogue of this legal saga takes place on October 25, 2005, when the decision of 2002 was confirmed. With this regulation, the only cheeses that are entitled to the designation feta are those “produced in mainland Greece as well as the department of Lesbos, […] the milk used to prepare feta must come from sheep and goats of local breeds traditionally reared and whose diet must be based on the flora present in the grazing areas of the eligible regions. "
Dairy manufacturers in member countries of the European communities using the term "feta" had until October 2007 to remove the word "feta" from their labeling.
However, since the European regulation is only European in scope, several WTO member countries still consider the word "feta" to be generic. However, EU member states intended to defend Europe’s indications of origin (PDOs) during the Doha Round against other WTO members.