The Real Deal

A few years ago, in March of 2001, a produce wholesaler out of Coral Gables, Florida called Fresh Del Monte (no relation to Del Monte Foods) attempted to pass off 1,920 five-pound bags of foreign-grown onions as sweet Vidalia onions. Luckily, they were caught by an intrepid Georgia agriculture inspector. All but 400 of the bags were recovered and the company forced to pay a $100K fine. Now the company is subject to unannounced onion inspections.

Yes, onion inspections.

Frankly, I am all for it. If I’m going to pay a premium for a regional specialty, I’d like to be confident that that specialty really did come from that region. I want to know my Smithfield Ham came from Virginia and my Maine lobster from Maine. Some might say, c’mon, can you really tell the difference? Possibly, but that isn’t the whole point. I believe that farmers and food artisans who take the risk of producing something exceptional should be afforded some protection.

The Vidalia Onion Act, which Fresh Del Monte violated, provides such protection. The act states that "only onions of an approved Vidalia onion variety grown in the Vidalia production area of the state may be identified, classified, packaged, labeled or designated for sale inside or outside Georgia as Vidalia onions." People working in the EU specialty sector will recognize the wording of the act: it sounds quite similar to the wording used by an EU program called Protected Domain of Origin,
or PDO. This program allows artisans in EU member states to claim protection for regional specialty food items, like cheese, produce or even crackers. Once the designation is given, no other producer outside that region may market that specialty.

True, it is somewhat protectionist and, true, there can be and have been abuses to the system – artisans competing, say, for exclusive rights to a cheese that is also indigenous to other regions. But by and large the system works, at least within the EU.

The United States does not recognize PDO status, undoubtedly because it would be bad for its home-grown food production industry. The US does enforce truth in advertising laws, but what constitutes "truth" is open to excessive interpretation. This is why one may find traditional "Feta" cheese from Wisconsin and Italian "San Marzano" tomatoes from California on specialty food store shelves. In all fairness, product origin must, by US law, appear on labeling. But unless you are an intrinsically paranoid shopper, odds are you’ll notice "Pomidori Pelati", for example, and reasonably assume you’re buying something from Italy.

As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Specialty food consumers tend to be an educated bunch.
It won’t be long before they cotton on to the ultimate guarantee of authenticity provided by the PDO system. This will be good news for artisans and, hopefully, good for the retail sector as well.