Parmigiano Reggiano makers embedding tiny trackers in rind to fight cheese fraud

This made me laugh so hard, not an ounce of bad intent to the previous post.

"Not meant to be taken literally, it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products."

Modern finance and accounting more-or-less started in Renaissance Italy. Double-entry bookkeeping meant merchants and bankers kept good books. Good books and good accounting made negotiable instruments like bills of exchange (e.g. checks) and letters of credit reliable--at least when drawn on or issued by Italian banks and their partners around the continent--which meant travelers and traders didn't need to carry alot of currency or gold (dangerous), or resort to barter. Negotiable instruments in turn built up foreign exchange markets. Foreign exchange markets grew foreign financing. Larger, more liquid financing markets meant it became easier to borrow against assets (i.e. security). And on and on.

Much of modern transactional banking and securities law became settled during that period, eventually becoming nearly universal across disparate legal regimes around the world.

Those are all different things and different forms of borrowing though.

When someone borrows against cheese they are borrowing against existing personal property for which labor has already been supplied rather than borrowing against future earnings. The lender does not need to verify income and credit, just inspect the purity of the cheese. With a home loan, the owner is borrowing against the personal property in the building, as well as the common property in the land and the future earnings of other people such as their tenants.

Additionally in the case of a co-op, the interest charges the organization collects on the debt are usually reinvested locally for the benefit members.

You can borrow against most assets whose values are easy to assess and are readily resellable, and which will keep that value, yes. What’s significant here is cheese being in that category. It’s still (like a home or publicly traded stock) the extreme exception, not the rule. I certainly can’t borrow against the cheese in my refrigerator (“fridge”), so it’s weird that you’d trivialize the case of co-op cheese as part of a totally normal trend of being able to borrow against anything.

Most of the stuff in my living room, for example, would not be able to secure a loan, except maybe a pawn loan on undesirable terms.

And it’s really weird to look at credit cards as an example of the same thing. “Your ability to earn and repay” is not generally classified as an “asset” except maybe metaphorically — not a financial/accounting sense.

This is how debt peons are made, historically. Kinda sad to see the same patterns in the modern world.

... which incidentally is the origin of the Commodity Market.

...under x mm of cheese.

Yeah I had the same question. I didn’t see any mentions of radio in the patent, but the product description document [0] does say:

——

Is the radio frequency signal from the p-Chip harmful?

A. No. The radio signal transmitted by p-Chips is so faint that approval from the US Federal Communications Commission or similar agencies is not required. Emissions fall well below FCC radiated emission limits defined in CFR 47, 15.209.

——

The illuminating laser wand does have a radio receiver. More info in this related patent [1], especially at page 21.

[0] https://www.isenet.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/PharmaSeq_W...

[1] https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/43/da/03/c648387...

The rind is very good for cooking sauces. You pull it out afterwards, but the chip could, of course, fall out into the sauce during cooking.

So if they put electronic sh*t into my food, I do not want to buy that anymore.

Probably it does not need to be declared, so I don't even know I am eating electronics.

There's some hideously toxic metals in certain semiconductors, e.g.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium_arsenide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_telluride

I've seen a few recipes where you steep the rinds in a liquid or a sauce to get more flavor.

Parmesan cheese rinds are tossed in soups or broths or used to infuse oils (e.g. olive oil).

Rind on some cheeses is the best bit: Gruyere e.g. In fact I'd buy it by the packet as a snack - like pork scratchings. If I knew anything about cheesemaking I'd make this my side gig.

A QR code is easy to copy? Im guessing this isn't.

From TFA:

"The innovation combines food-safe Casein labels with the p-Chip micro transponder — a blockchain crypto-anchor that creates a digital 'twin' for physical items. This scannable new food tag is smaller than a grain of salt and highly durable, delivering next-generation visibility and traceability."

I, for one, had never heard the term "blockchain crypto-anchor" before.

This was in the mid-2000's, so my memory is pretty fuzzy. I'll definitely check that brand out, though.

Canned tomatoes? Yikes. If you’re trying to beat premise sauces at least get some local fresh tomatoes and have a go and making it from scratch. The acidic flavour of canned tomatoes is horrible in my opinion compared to fresh tomatoes.

Here’s a version by the same chef without the paywall: https://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/marinara-sauce-2/

Or as a compromise between time and taste, add crushed/chopped tomatoes to a bottled sauce.

Fresh is always better, even if you don't have acces to San Marazano tomatoes.

This tomato sauce recipe goes out the the poor guys here. I imagine we are the minority here?

1. Tomatoes--any kind. You will buy them initially to use them for sandwiches, and maybe a salad, but will be left over with a bowl of soft tomatoes at tge end of the week. The rest left older will start to rot, so why not make tomato sauce.

2. In any pot, put in 1/4 cup of olive oil.

3. Put in handful of fresh onions in the hot oil. (You can use dehydrated onion. Many commercial kitchens do.)

4. Add a few teaspoons of fresh garlic, or dehydrated garlic.

5. Add couple of teaspoons of salt, and a pinch of honey, or sugar. I used pancake syrup last night because I ran out of anything sweet.

(add a pinch of cayenne pepper, or black, if you like it spicy.)

Using a potato masher smash it all down. Cook 40 minutes on low.

You now have pasta sauce, or pizza sauce, for the week. Add butter when using it on pasta.

You now have sauce for noodles. Add a few pats of butter for pasta. Your guests won't know, but will like your sauce. Belive me restaurants use a lot of butter, and salt. There's a happy medium. A 1/2 tbs of butter will not kill you. The vegan in the group can use vegetarian butter substitute.

You want pizza?

You need dough?

1. luke warm water added to a large bowl. Add the yeast. Amount doesn't matter. A few teaspoons usually.

2. add some sugar, honey, or whatever. Last night I used pancake syrup.

3. Add high gluten flour if you can find it. Add any flour will do if that's all you have.

4. In the bowl mix it like you dislike it. Add more flour if necessary. Add more water if too dry. Just do it.

Pound that dough. After 20-30 minutes it should be the consistency of a male boob. (I have man boobs, and couldn't think of a politically correct example, but we have all all felt a fatty boob. It's just adipose tissue, and skin. Enough of my analogies you will never hear out of any cooks mouth.)

5. Cover that dough with a wet towel, saran wrap, or foil.

Let it rise in a warm kitchen. Since most of us don't have the right kitchen temp, turn on the oven for a a minute, and turn off. You want the temp between 80-120 degrees.

Put a pot holder on the rack and the bowl of dough goes on the rack. The pot holder acts as a gasket between the warm metal grates, and your bowl.

5. Let it rise for an hour. It's now ready to use for pizza dough, or freezing. You could punch it down again, and let it rise, but unless you have all the right quality ingredients, it dosen't matter. (you could add some oil oil to the dough.)

I'm poor, and have been cooking for myself, and my mom for years.

I was trained at Zesto's Cafe in the 80's by a owner who always accused me of stealing. I was unbelievably honest/ernest at the time. I didn't know how the wealthy lie, and cheat, daily.

I guess because I was in high school, with long hair. I did know other employees whom were stealing, but never said anything. I'm no rat. Then, or now.

Trust me tomato sauce, and pizza dough are easy to make.

Making good bread is very, very hard though.

So hard, I have heard French/Italian chefs gave up, and only buy from their baker. Something about the yeast in the air, and the right climate, along with the right stove.

Just using the brand in question:

https://www.target.com/p/sartori-sarvecchio-parmesan-cheese-...

https://www.wisconsincheesemart.com/products/parmesan-sarvec...

The price is about $7, but you'll notice it's only about 1/3 of a pound, so the per-pound price is $20-21. Which, again, tracks with what I've been saying. The only difference is you might be forced to buy a pound of the real stuff when you get a wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano, so there's a bigger upfront cost, but you'll definitely go through the stuff. It's delicious grated, it's delicious on its own, and it freezes well.

That some really odd pricing, there's no investment out there where you could purchase for x, let it sit for 16 months, and then sell for 2x. You'd think the manufacturers or some other entity would just be buying all the 24month to age another 16 months to double their money (less some warehouse / transport overhead).

buying the wedge with the rind is a treat. when you get to the end you can break off a piece and gnaw on it all day at work like a dogs bone

Until 1976, I had never heard of Comté; they sold that cheese as Gruyére, even though it was made in France. In that year, the AOC regulations came fully into force, and it became illegal to sell cheese made in France as Gruyére.

There are many regional variations and qualities of Comté, too.

When De Gaulle asked "How can you govern a country with 200 different cheeses", he was underestimating badly.

I don't believe it's not doable, but all I've seen of North American supermarkets is 'cheddar-style' processed cheese and similar abominations; is food-buying just different, does anyone wanting half-decent cheese go to a cheesemonger or farmers' market or something?

The process you’re thinking of is cheddaring. Many cheeses are cheddared but aren’t Cheddar.

I thought "parmigiano" is the DOP name and "parmesan" is a free for all. Apparently, I'd misunderstood:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmesan

That is the fast way. Normally it should be aged when it's still a head of cheese and not a slice in someone's fridge. Far as I can tell that takes more than a year, just because it's such a big head of cheese. The advantage of aging a mere slice is that it ages many times faster.

Yes there is.

The problem is that it's a real black market, the cheese is stolen and sold on the black market without any assurance that it was handled or aged in the correct way, just as you would imagine in a black market.

So even if the source material is legit, the final product being sold is probably not.

And the illegal profits are hard to quantify, because it's a black market after all.

> there is a thriving black market, as an estimated $7 million in Italian Parmesan cheese has been stolen in just the last two years. Parmesan cheese has proven to be an ideal target for culinary criminals. In order to be certified Parmiggiano Reggiano, the cheese must age for at least a year.

It's not that the cellulose is harmful, but that it might be used as filler in quantities far in excess of what is necessary for preventing caking. Calling it "wood pulp" is pointless scaremongering, I agree.

Cellulose on pregrated cheese is also supposed to impair melting, but I've always questioned how strong this effect might be. I've used grated cheese that melts wonderfully and grated cheese that might as well be plastic, and that's generally been correlated with the price of the cheese. Maybe cheaper cheese has more cellulose, but in my experience it's also drier and more rubbery, and melting is influenced by moisture content.

It seems to be fashionable to see a corporate conspiracy in everything.

From there, it's just a few more steps before people think that Bill Gates is using the tracking chips in the Parmesan to track people at all times, cackling in his secret underground lair.

If it’s no big deal why don’t they put “wood pulp” on the packaging? The fact it saves them money is too convenient by half and if they want to sell it they should be forced to disclose how they’re making it shake easier.

If the label says 100% parmesean but the contents is 0% parmesean, I have 0% faith that the included wood pulp is safe for consumption. Lettuce is regulated; sawdust filler in fraudulent product (from the local PT lumber mill, perhaps?) is not.

I suppose they might be mistaken for fine Parmesan cheese. Otherwise they’ll be fine. Have you not noticed what your dog will happily eat off the ground when you’re out for a walk? Discarded socks, gravel, bits of plastic, cat shit, gum wrappers, literally anything that catches its eye when you’re not paying close attention.

I was thinking the same thing. I never had great results with this, but it's certainly a traditional thing to throw the rind in water used for rice, etc. as well.

I love parmesan rinds - it never occurred to me they might be dangerous.

None of those are eating the rind. They are putting the wine in broth for seasoning.

Do you regularly chew grains of sand? I reckon your enamel is more in danger from this than anything else.

Only if you have a trusted central database. With blockchain you can move your cheese independent of central authority.

> That works even if you remove the "Blockchain".

That's a key criteria for being Web 3.0. Now basically, the only new principal involved is that instead of value being generated by the relative motion of conductors and fluxes, it is produced by the modial interaction of magneto-reluctance and capacitive-interactance... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac7G7xOG2Ag

I eat it directly. Quite like the texture actually

Wow, TIL.

I always assumed the Parmesan rind is wax.

For sure, but then you take it out before you serve it (at least in my experience).

Doesn't the rind have wax? (same as candle wax)

terroir

The region is just a collection of companies... Identical logic applies. It's just as if one company bought up all the little ones, no different...

> This is benefiting the local community at the cost of anyone else who is capable of delivering the same quality but is now excluded only by virtue of their location.

No it's not, people can make better stuff and put their own brand on it... Nobody excluded from making better parmesean, only from lying that it's from that region when it's not...

To get a DPO registration you must show both historical ties to the region and a specific regional method. There is a quality control board. Probably some of it is puffery; some of it is quite precise.

https://www.parmigianoreggiano.com/consortium-specifications...

Well, it's hard to imagine that such a flagship monument to the made in Italy comes to existence thanks to magical powers.

To answer the question, of course there is a very strict quality control board

All producers of Parmesan cheese belong to the Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese Consortium), which was founded in 1928. Besides setting and enforcing the standards for the PDO [1], the Consorzio also sponsors marketing activities

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_designation_of_ori...

Biotechnology, not magic. Different places have their own unique populations of mould, bacteria and mites that get into the cheese, which greatly affects the taste and texture.

Culturally Americans are terrified of finding such things in their food supply, so it's easy to understand why they don't hold these protected designations of origin in high regard, nor are likely to do much to replicate the effects in their domestic versions.

Yes, of course, sorry for not being precise, I apologize!

I simply wanted to show the connection between the name Parmigiano Regiano and the area it comes from.

Modena is my goto place when I am travelling to stop eating and I've lived in Bologna for two years, the whole Emilia Romagna is one of my favorite places in Italy.

Also, my father in law lives in Mantua, so, I can say I am a Parmigiano home boy :D