(Micaela Cappellini - 25/02/2020)
On 4th December 2019, the European Court of Justice decrees that the words “vinegar” and “balsamic”, taken individually, can be used by anyone without violating the exclusive rights of Italian Consortiums. “Balsamic” was one of the Italian agro-food world’s greatest lost opportunities, states Andrea Bezzecchi, during his interview by the newspaper. He goes on to say that “the fact that the word ‘balsamic’ was considered, from a normative point of view, for a description of excessively low quality standards, leading to an inability to distinguish it from a product made elsewhere, without any link to the territory (Modena IGP balsamic vinegar) turned out to be the basis of a “dumbing down” process which, in effect, removed any chance of protecting the term “balsamic”.