Buying Parmesan Cheese, Watch Out for the Microchip!

5 min read

Next time you buy Parmesan cheese, watch out for the microchip. A microchip? Food producers and Parmigiano-Reggiano are going to ever greater lengths to protect their billion-dollar markets against knockoffs

Welcome to That’s Life, I Swear. This podcast is about life’s happenings in this world that conjure up such words as intriguing, frightening, life-changing, inspiring, and more. I’m Rick Barron your host. 

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Parmigiano-Reggiano, often referred to as the "King of Cheeses," is a world-renowned Italian cheese loved for its exceptional taste and quality. However, its fame has also made it a prime target for counterfeiters looking to exploit its premium status.

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Courtesy of New York Times

This cheese is a hard, granular cheese produced in the Italian regions of Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy. It is one of the most popular cheeses in the world, and is often used as a grated topping for pasta dishes.

In recent years, there has been a growing problem of counterfeit Parmigiano-Reggiano products. The cheese is often made with lower-quality ingredients and is not aged for the required minimum of 12 months. Counterfeit foods can be difficult to distinguish from the real thing, and this has caused significant losses for many companies other than the cheese industry.

Italian producers of parmesan cheese have been fighting against imitations for years. Now, makers of Parmigiano-Reggiano, as the original parmesan cheese is officially called, are slapping microchips on their 90-pound cheese wheels as part of an endless cat-and-mouse game between makers of authentic and fake products.

Oh, yes, forgot to mention, don’t worry about swallowing the microchip? Why not worry? The microchips are editable.

The new silicon chips, made by Chicago-based p-Chip, use blockchain technology to authenticate data that can trace the cheese as far back as the producer of the milk used. Now, that’s pretty damn impressive. The chips have been in advanced testing on more than 100,000 Parmigiano wheels for more than a year. The consortium of producers wants to be sure the chips can stand up to any company’s production requirements.

p-Chip. Courtesy of: Guardian

These microchips are about the size of a grain of sand, and workers on the production line can embed the microchip in the rind of the cheese. They contain a unique identification code that is scanned to verify the authenticity of the cheese.

The p_Chip isn’t just for cheese. Drugmaker Merck KGaA will soon begin using the chips, which are also being tested in the automotive industry to guarantee the authenticity of car parts. The forecast is that the p_Chip could be used on livestock, crops or medicine stored in liquid nitrogen.

The chips are made from a food-safe material and designed to withstand the aging process of Parmigiano-Reggiano. They have been rigorously tested and be effective in preventing counterfeiting.

The durability of the p-Chips can withstand extreme heat or cold, can be read through ice and can withstand years of storage in liquid nitrogen. They’ve proven to outperform RFID chips. The issue with RFID chips is they’re much larger than a p_Chip which are larger, difficult to attach to products, are more fragile and can’t survive extreme temperatures, according to p-Chip Chief Technology Officer Bill Eibon. 

Another factor about the strength of the p_Chip is that as part of a lab test, the chips sat for three weeks in a mock-up of stomach acid without leaking any dangerous material. Eibon put his money where his mouth is, by eating one without suffering any ill effects. 

Why does this matter?

In a word, money. Other European food producers are also going to ever greater lengths to protect their hallowed brand names against knockoffs. Guaranteeing food authenticity is big business in the European Union with more than 3,500 EU products and growing.

The market is worth almost €80 billion annually, equivalent to $87 billion, according to an EU study published in 2020. According to food industry analysts, the market has grown considerably in recent years due to adding new products to the list.

Looking back at 2022, the latest monitoring report published by the European Commission shows that EU agri-food trade totaled €401.5 billion during the year.

Food fraud poses several challenges:

1. Economic Impact: Counterfeiting erodes the reputation of the genuine product and results in significant economic losses for producers.
2. Quality Control: Counterfeit products may not meet the rigorous quality standards of genuine food producers, potentially jeopardizing consumer health.
3. Consumer Trust: When consumers unknowingly purchase counterfeit products, their trust in the authenticity of the food producers products can diminish.

Edible Microchips as a Solution

To tackle these challenges, Parmigiano-Reggiano producers have turned to advanced technology in the form of edible microchips. These microchips are embedded in the cheese wheels during the production process and offer a multi-faceted solution to counterfeiting:

1. Traceability: Each microchip is equipped with a unique identifier that can be tracked throughout the supply chain. This allows producers to monitor the movement of cheese wheels and verify their authenticity at every stage.
2. Authenticity Verification: Consumers, retailers, and authorities can use dedicated devices or smartphone apps to scan the microchips and instantly verify the cheese's origin and authenticity.
3. Data Collection: The microchips also collect data on various parameters, such as temperature and humidity, during transportation and storage. This data can help ensure the cheese remains in optimal condition.
4. Tamper Detection: If someone attempts to tamper with or remove the microchip, the system can trigger alerts, further deterring counterfeiters.

While it’s great that food producers are taking high-tech steps to protect the reputation of their products, unfortunately, the cost gets passed down to the consumer. 

Even the protected products commanding premium prices, in some cases, double those of similar but unprotected products, the market in Europe and farther afield is vastly over runned with fakes. Estimates put the market for knockoff products at about the same size as that for the originals. 

Another way the European market is dealing with fake food producers is by obtaining the most coveted EU designation. That designation label is called the protected designation of origin, which guarantees products authenticity.

Protected Designation of Origin. Courtesy of Wikipedia

The label was established in 1992 and its main purpose is to designate products that have been produced, processed and developed in a specific geographical area, using the recognized know-how of local producers and ingredients from the region concerned. 

Other obscure products have also made the list of foods and wines with names that can only be used by traditional local producers. These include a type of Slovenian salt, garlic produced on one of Portugal’s Azores islands in the Atlantic Ocean, a raw milk cheese made in Bavaria, Germany, and a prune from southern Poland. Italy has the most protected products, followed by France and Spain.

New methods to guarantee the origin of products are being used across the EU. Some wineries are putting serial numbers, invisible ink and holograms on their bottles. So-called DNA fingerprinting of milk bacteria pioneered in Switzerland, which isn’t in the EU, is now being tested inside the bloc to identify cheese. 

What can we learn from this story? What's the takeaway?

The use of edible microchips in Parmigiano-Reggiano production represents a significant step forward in the fight against counterfeiting. 

Other countries in Europe and the rest of the world for that matter, are left in a position that in order to keep their reputation in tack, they must turn to innovative approaches such as enhanced traceability, authenticity verification, and data collection while deterring potential counterfeiters. 

It protects the economic interests of producers and ensures consumers can continue to enjoy the genuine quality and tradition of world-famous cheese, wine, dairy products and more.  

As technology continues to evolve, edible microchips may not be the only method to safeguard the authenticity of other premium products in the global market.

Well, there you go, my friends; that's life, I swear

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