Gruyère: Real and Imagined
- andychalk
- 20 minutes ago
- 6 min read
by Andrew Chalk
Cheese eaters in the USA are at a distinct disadvantage over those in the EU when it comes to buying gruyère. The cheese they buy here is not the same as they would be buying if they were in Switzerland, the land of its creation. Specifically, anyone can call their cheese gruyère if it meets this FDA definition.
This is because, in 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a District Court decision that the Swiss and French gruyère producers’ associations could not register the term gruyère as a trademark because it had lapsed into generic usage. The defendants argued that they had been using the term to describe their cheese for 55 years. Plaintiffs argued that the term gruyère implied a particular area of production. The court essentially used the same argument that had been used to justify the terms ‘cheddar’ and ‘port’ being unprotected.
US RULES FOR GRUYÈRE
This is not to say that any cheese can be called gruyère. US producers are subject to the FDA definition of the term, set out in full here. This basically describes a method of production and results. The results are a cheese with small holes or eyes, mild flavor, minimum milk fat level of 45% and maximum moisture of 39%. It must be at least 90 days old. The FDA is silent on any geographic origin and what animal the milk comes from. It is permissive on whether the milk is pasteurized.
Cheese aficionados regard gruyère as one of the great cheeses of the world. How is this possible if the name has fallen into generic status? Who upholds quality in the cheese?
SWISS RULES FOR GRUYÈRE
The answer is in the organization that is the de facto standard bearer for gruyère being a great cheese: Interprofession du Gruyère Consortium (IGP) of Switzerland. At a recent Culture conference Caroline Hostettler, from the Consortium’s marketing arm, described their gruyère. They call it Le Gruyere AOP. Here is a summary of her description of what that means.
The IGP aims to define the production of Le Gruyere AOP from the farm to final sale. The body is composed of:
1600 milk producers;
155 cheesemakers;
61 Alpine pasture producers;
11 cheese refiners;
The limited production area (the area where the animals may feed and the cheese be made) contains the original canton of Fribourg, where production is documented back to 1115 AD and using an essentially unchanged recipe. Additionally Vaud, Neuchâtel, Jura and part of the canton of Bern.
The product must be at least five months old when it is placed into retail sale, its appearance is round, with a mouldy rind, uniformly brownish and healthy. Its aspect ratio should be normal and well-proportioned. The edges should be slightly rounded.
Acceptable measurements of a wheel:
Diameter: 55cm-65cm;
Height: 9.5cm-12 cm;
Weight: 25kg-40kg;
The milk:
70% of the ration given to the cows comes from the farm;
No silage allowed;
Twice-daily milk delivery (morning milk is mixed into previous evening’s milk);
No additives;
No anonymous milk;
The milk must come from within a 20km radius of the cheese dairy;
Milk is used less than 18 hours after milking;
No pasteurisation;
No preservatives;
No growth hormones;
Processing milk to make cheese:
The production of gruyère cheese in a vat must be the first use of the vat that day;
The tank must be made of copper, open, and have a maximum capacity of 6,600 litres;
Production is carried out with evening and morning milking;
Milk must be raw;
Each cheese must be identified with its date of manufacture and the number of the casein cheese dairy;
Maturing specifications:
Maturing cellars are mainly located in caves or natural cellars;
Cheeses are laid out on spruce wood boards;
After four months the cheeses are inspected and graded by specialists from the IGP and the affineurs on a 20-point scale. Four elements count:
Paste quality;
Texture;
Aroma;
Exterior;
The AOP designation. The EU awards AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protégée) status. Only 12 of 700 cheeses in Switzerland have it.
Expected Taste
6-9 months: Le Gruyère AOP classique.Tender, mild, fine flavor.
10+ months:Le Gruyère AOP Réserve. Fuller-bodied, more aromatic flavour. Saltier than a younger gruyère AOP. Firm, slightly crumbly flavor with a long finish. Can be consumed on its own or used in cooking;
14+ months: Le Gruyère AOP Mature. Full-bodied and highly aromatic with intense fruit and nut notes. Dark yellow color. Firm yet crumbly, slightly grainy texture and persistent saltiness;
Le Gruyère d’Alpage AOP is a designation reserved for gruyère produced high in the Alps and Jura mountains during the summer. Uniquely aromatic, with a flavor profile unique to the alpine meadows on which the cows graze.
Total annual production varies between 25,500 - 34,000 tonnes. Just under half is exported outside Switzerland with three-quarters of it going to the EU and USA.
Role of The IGP
The IGP self-describes its role as:
▪ Maintaining our reputation
▪ Gaining market share
▪ Maintaining our position as national leader
▪ Improving our volume in export countries
▪ Communicating quality levels
▪ Supporting growth in production volumes
▪ Meeting consumer expectations
▪ Seizing opportunities
It can be described as having both a quality control and a marketing role. Its marketing is active in all the largest markets. However, it is not elitist. In France, the American burger chain Burger King proudly trumpets that it uses gruyère in its restaurants. Generally, practical guides provide consumers with recipes and tips on how to make the most of gruyère in their diets.
Preservation of Heritage, Not Innovation
The whole Le Gruyère AOP raisin d’être is preservation, not innovation. The executive instrument for this is the IGP. Its preservation objectives can be seen in its practices. For example, many of the rules it stipulates express inputs, not results. A case in point is the use of spruce wood boards to age wheels of maturing cheese. Has anybody ever actually shown that there is nothing else that is just as good?
Another example of preservation objectives is the permanency of the recipe, twice as old as the Unites States of America, and unchanged.
To point out this focus is not to suggest it is bad. It exists in a wider world in which people who produce their own riff on gruyère (street gruyère?) are free to make innovations forbidden to the AOP producers. Has this, over a long period of time, resulted in a demonstrably better gruyère that has left the AOP struggling to find customers? Clearly not. Rather, they appear to be preserving something rather good.
Monopoly?
The IGP sets the production area, the production target (or quota) for each cheesemaker. It establishes and levies fines for deviations from this quota. It sets, by extension, the total output of cheese each year. It specifies the inputs, and almost comprehensively, the production function for the cheese.
These are all things that a recently arrived martian might point at and say “monopoly!”
The answer would be to point out that all these practices are designed to preserve the style and quality of the product, not to restrict consumer choice. Indeed, within Switzerland alone the consumer has, as stated earlier, 700 choices of cheese, so 699 remain. If the cheeses of adjacent France are included then the choice is even more vast. So vast it caused a former President of the country to ponder how a country with so many cheeses could be governed.
Conclusion
An understanding of all the steps that go into making gruyère, and the rules governing its production, gives the cheese lover and the cheese professional a new appreciation as to why it is considered to be one the greatest cheeses in the world. The lesson is that other products that are granted strong protections of their methods may be able to retain high quality as well.