#52026XC02638EU approves changes to the Morbier PDO cheese specification
AI-generated summary for informational purposes only. Not legal advice. See the original source for the authoritative text.
The amendment updates the production rules for Morbier, a French PDO raw cow’s milk cheese. It affects milk producers, farm cheesemakers, maturing facilities, inspection bodies and businesses selling Morbier under the protected name. The changes tighten several farming and production conditions, including feed rules, grassland management, fertiliser limits, grazing area, herd management, milking practices, cheese processing and maturing. They also allow a lower minimum moisture level for more mature cheeses, update labelling rules, and add specific rules for on-farm production. Operators in the Morbier PDO chain will need to check whether their production, records, labels and inspection procedures match the revised specification.
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Key Changes
- Minimum moisture content on a fat-free basis is lowered from 58% to 55%, supporting more mature Morbier cheeses.
- Production rules are tightened for grassland, fertilisation, feed, grazing area, herd management, milking, processing and maturing.
- Labelling must show the Morbier name and EU PDO logo in the same field of vision, and maturing-facility identification is expanded to all Morbier labelling.
Obligations
What this law requires
Morbier PDO milk producers must ensure permanent grassland represents at least 50% of the holding’s total forage area, and may not chemically destroy grassland with non-selective herbicide, except for localised selective herbicide treatments against weeds.
Grassland fertilisation for Morbier PDO production must not exceed 100 nitrogen units per hectare per parcel per year, except parcels receiving only solid effluents may receive up to 120 nitrogen units; synthetic mineral nitrogen inputs must not exceed an average of 40 nitrogen units per hectare.
Operators applying organic manure on forage parcels must limit applications to three per parcel per year, must not exceed 30 tonnes of manure or 30 m3 of liquid manure per hectare per pass, and must not exceed 50 tonnes of manure or 50 m3 of liquid manure per hectare annually.
From 1 January 2031, only purification-plant sludge from plants exclusively treating effluents and raw materials from PDO processing facilities may be applied; from the same date, manure applied must come only from livestock farms in the geographical area whose animals are fed without GMOs.
Morbier PDO milk producers must prohibit silage products or other fermented feed throughout the entire holding year-round, and must prohibit GMO feed for all ruminants on the holding.