Italians have helped pioneer the use of regional food legislation, in particular to protect the names of wines. The systematic protection of wines had its beginnings in 1900, with the modern scheme being instituted in 1963.

In 1993, a unified, Europe-wide system for the protection of traditional foods was introduced, which offered protection for agricultural products as well as a separate, but similar, system for wines. In Italy, the two systems run concurrently, particularly for wine, with the existing classifications generally taking precedence on labels. Despite this dual system, today Italy is the European country with the most protected foods under the EU regime.

As with all other countries in the EU, there are three types of European protection available for foods or agricultural products. Under EU law, wines have their own scheme and are classified separately to other drinks and foodstuffs, although wines still bear the same PDO/PGI labels.

Number of protected foods: 274

Modelled after the French AOC system, the denominazione di origine controllata system is dedicated to protecting wines that are made in a specified region, using defined methods, to make a unique, quality product. In 1980, the denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (DOCG) system was introduced, which was said to come with stricter controls and monitoring; wines were submitted for blind taste-tests before sale. Some producers however, felt that the rules for protecting wines had become too lenient, promoting quantity over quality, and had in fact devalued certain products. In some cases wine producers voluntarily declassified their wines to move away from these protected names.

In 1992 the system was completely overhauled to bring it into line with European legislation and the EU classifications were also introduced. All wines that were DOC or DOCG were made DOP. However, in Italy this did not result in the phasing out of their native system, which is typically preferred on labels over the new EU classifications (especially winemakers with a DOCG designation). A mandate to switch is unlikely to be introduced until 2020 at the earliest.

This is the strongest protection that can be afforded to a food. It is used to classify food with characteristics that are completely unique to a place or region.

To qualify for this status, the food must meet two specific criteria:

Fontina is a cheese produced in the unique mountain environment of the Valle d’Aosta, an Alpine valley with specific climate, flora and fauna. An indigenous breed of cattle, the Valdostana, is used to make the rich milk for this cheese. This breed has evolved in the area and is suited to moving around mountain pastures in search of forage. The cattle graze in the mountains during the summer and in pastureland during the autumn. In winter they must be fed on hay and grass produced in the valley.

All aspects of the cheese production – caring for and rearing the cows, making and aging the cheese, and the delicate, time-sensitive slicing and packaging of this moist delicacy – take place in the protected area.

Production techniques and methods have their root in historical texts (its characteristics were described as early as 1477) and have remained relatively unchanged since. These include the use of raw milk from a single milking, which better retains the unique bacterial flora of the milk, and particular ripening processes which were developed through the use of local caves for aging.

The result is a cheese with characteristic rich, nutty, grassy, fruity flavours reminiscent of truffles, with particularly favourable melting properties.