Shepherds Purse Cheeses launches new name for infamous Yorkshire Feta

After a 10 year battle with bureaucracy in which it lost its fight to overturn an EU ruling giving feta Protected Designation of Origin status, artisan Yorkshire cheesemaker Shepherds Purse is in fine fettle with the re-launch of its infamous Yorkshire Feta under a new name - from May this year, Yorkshire Feta will be called Fine Fettle Yorkshire Cheese and was unveiled to the trade at IFE.

Following a ruling from the European Court of Justice in 2005 giving feta PDO status, the directive forced the company to change the name of its second best selling cheese, despite support from the likes of DEFRA, its local constituency MP Anne McIntosh and Conservative MEP Edward McMillan-Scott.

The Greek Government applied for PDO status in 1996 and Shepherds Purse was informed by DEFRA in 1997 that it would have to rename its popular Yorkshire Feta product, which the company had been manufacturing using 100 per cent locally sourced ewe’s milk since 1987. The application was overturned in 1999, following objections by the German and Danish Governments, when feta was removed from the PDO register. The Greeks re-applied for a PDO in 2000 and persuaded the EU Commission to register feta as exclusively Greek, arguing that grasses on the country’s mountains gave the cheese its special flavour and it succeeded in gaining PDO status in 2005.

Since the story hit the headlines, Shepherds Purse has been overwhelmed with support from customers and suppliers alike and has received hundreds of suggestions for the new name. 'We still feel very strongly that as ‘feta’ is not a geographical area of Greece, we should be allowed to use it as a generic term to describe a young, creamy cheese made from ewe’s milk, but the directive left us with no choice but to re-name and re-market our popular Yorkshire Feta.'

'We spent hours sifting through the many suggestions we received. We really wanted something that was true to Yorkshire and summed up the battle we fought for a decade. Yorkshire Fettle was our first choice, with the term fettle having its origins in Yorkshire dialect and the meaning hit home too – ‘to put things in order, a state of mind/spirit.’ We drew up a shortlist of 3 names, including Yorkshire Fettle – all were discounted by DEFRA, who claimed they could all be challenged by the European Courts. We had to compromise and the name Fine Fettle Yorkshire Cheese was suggested by a legal advisor and this name was eventually passed as acceptable,' said Judy Bell, chief executive of Shepherds Purse Cheeses.

As an artisan cheesemaker, changing the branding of Yorkshire Feta has been a costly business with the company spending in excess of £30K on man hours, design costs, printing and packaging costs and re-marketing expenditure. Judy Bell continued 'I still maintain that Greece will be unable to meet the demands of the EU’s need for feta on its own. We have produced Yorkshire Feta since 1987 and it accounts for more than 15 per cent of our turnover. I still can’t help feeling that the ruling in favour of Greece simply panders to the whims of one of the newer EU members.'

'It was a long, hard fought fight, but we are in fine fettle for the future both in the UK and overseas. We will put our efforts into re-marketing Fine Fettle Yorkshire Cheese, which is the same in all but name and much creamier to the taste than its European contemporaries. It has a crumbly, delicate texture with a fresh lemony flavour and is still traditionally handmade to our own recipe.' We would like to thank everyone from customers, suppliers, legal advisors, Members of Parliament and our staff alike for all their unswerving support throughout the issue,” concluded Judy Bell.

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