Parmigiano-Reggiano makers are putting edible microchips the size of a grain of sand into their 90-pound cheese wheels to combat counterfeiters::Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano makers are using microchips to verify the authenticity of their products and thwart scammers.

  • Terr
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    1 year ago

    I got to admit, Italians inventing Cheese DRM, wasn’t on my 2023 Bingo card.

  • Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    For fucks sake… This is literally about an RFID sticker that is put on the outside of whole cheese wheels.

    So unless you buy whole 40kg wheel and then eat it with the rind… you are not eating any.

    And also fuck that article for even mentioning that.

    • N1NJ4W4RR10R_@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      That makes it sound like the “edible” aspect of this is just an anti idiot feature. *Or just “printed” on it.

      Either way, pointless article.

      • _s10e@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        I believe regulations require that everything you put in or on food is technically editable. Like the paper stickers on bread or produce. They are disgusting, but if you or your child accidentally eats them, they are fine.

      • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Alex Jones will yell about the headline and say Soros is microchipping food and if you eat cheese the 5g vaccine will do a false flag and turn the frogs even gayer.

        • 4am@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I mean the top comment here didn’t even read the article to find out there’s no risk of them ingesting it unless it’s done on purpose after they purchase the entire wheel, they just read the headline and implied what it suggested without actually learning the full truth.

          Alex Jones makes money on being a walking, talking “clickbait headline”. And people are so addicted to the dopamine they get from feeling “smarter” than other people (after being dumb all their lives because the American school system has been designed to fail them) that they huff his words like a drug.

          Smug superiority is addictive.

          • utopianrevolt@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You’re completely right, but it’s also highlighted when people on the internet discuss things they know nothing about but decide to become very sarcastic against “the other side.”

            smug superiority indeed. many examples in this very thread.

    • pimento64@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      unless you buy whole 40kg wheel and then eat it with the rind

      Haha no of course not…

      • June@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        lol right? I would never lol, that would be like, too much? Would it be too much? Honestly we may never know

            • silly goose meekah@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I seriously love parmesan. I always buy it fresh and grate it myself. I know pretty well how much cheese is reasonable to eat in a sitting. 100g is insanely much for one serving, but you could distribute it over the whole day. If you eat 100g of parmesan each day, 1kg will be gone after 10 days. That means eating 40kg takes 400 days, or a bit longer than a year.

              Being a bit more realistic easily allows you to stretch that wheel of parmesan over the span of a decade, even if you seriously love the stuff.

              I’m perfectly aware that you’re not being entirely serious but I just can’t let it stand like that.

                • silly goose meekah@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  When I was a kid we’d grate 200g for 4 people. I take a bit less nowadays than what I would get as a kid but some people still look at me funny. I think 20-30g is a regular serving.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=parmesan+rind+uses&ia=web

          From the top result (Treehugger):

          1. Throw them into tomato sauce when cooking. They’ll impart some flavor. Pull them out and discard when the sauce is done cooking.
          2. Place them in a jar, pour olive oil over them (perhaps add some garlic cloves, too – but if you add garlic, make sure to keep the oil refrigerated) and make parmesan-infused olive oil. Great for dipping bread into.
          3. Throw them into bean soups or minestrone. Discard the rinds before serving.
          4. Throw them into the pot when you’re making stock.
          5. Add to stew. Remove rinds before serving.
          6. Use them to flavor steamed artichokes. Add some chicken broth, onion and lemon juice and a cheese rind or two, and it’s a delicious broth!
          7. Put a rind in the pot when you’re cooking risotto or other rice. Remove the rind before serving.
          8. Make a parmesan broth for cheese-filled pastas like ravioli. You can try the removedincamero’s recipe for ricotta & pea ravioli in parmesan broth or just use the recipe for inspiration for your own pasta in Parmesan broth.
          9. Try The Novice Chef’s Panera-inspired recipe for tomato, cheese and bread Soup.
          10. If the rind is pure cheese (with no waxy coating), you can grill the rind until it becomes soft and chewy, put it on a piece of crusty bread, and eat.
  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The chips use blockchain technology and trace the wheel of cheese back to where the milk that was used came from.

    Cryptobros, Unite! We finally found a way for blockchain tech to be relevant for more than just ransomware! We authenticate cheese!

    Someone’s gonna make a ton of money on CheeseCoin

    • Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.world
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      Blockchain is also good for solving the Ship of Theseus problem. You can encode the entire history of the object into the object.

      Blockchain has many cool uses and none of them are currency.

    • June@lemm.ee
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      Blockchain =/= crypto

      Crypto uses blockchain, but blockchain is just a different type of database that generally tracks data through a decentralized network. It has a lot of real uses beyond crypto like identity verification, transcript/records management management, and iot data sharing. It’s nothing that can’t be done in a centralized manner, it’s just a different way of going about it that, in some cases, is much more secure and/or much more easily accessible.

      • Helluin@lemm.ee
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        It’s nothing that can’t be done in a centralized manner,

        and thats the main problem with basically all blockchain related solutions, theres pretty much always a centralized alternative thats more efficient

        • utopianrevolt@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          and much more… centralized? But let’s also just ignore the part where it’s described as generally more secure as well.

          • turmacar@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The cheese makers are not concerned about decentralization. Presumably they trust themselves, because they are the only ones trusted to write to the database. If they are the only ones allowed to put something on the chain, it’s a central database, regardless of how many computers/places they run it on.

            Blockchain is not magically more secure than any other equivalent cryptographic solution.

          • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Most commercial non-crypto blockchains I’ve seen only have a couple of nodes connected, usually held by a single entity. In these cases it’s no less centralised than any alternative write-only DB.

          • Helluin@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            and much more… centralized?

            it being centralized dosent mean its bad. theres also the fact that many processes are centralized by the nature of how they work.

            it’s described as generally more secure as well.

            why would that be?

          • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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            What corporation which validates their supply chain for authenticity is not already centralized? It literally makes no sense when the official manufacturer and logistics partners are all known, at that point you may at best want “transparency logs” but not blockchains. They’re not even intended to stay authenticated on a second hand market, so there’s no need to be able to keep tracking their movements after first sale

    • dodslaser@feddit.nu
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      I don’t know, can you make a JPEG of the cheese wheel and then put the hyperlink on the blockchain? Maybe make it so I can import the cheese in a shitty MMO that nobody actually wants to play?

  • Gork@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    If I run low on health and have to eat several dozen cheese wheels, will the authentic DRM ones provide a greater HP boost compared to the generic cheese wheels?

    • Curious Canid@lemmy.ca
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      Actually an “HP boost” refers to using fake Hewlett-Packard ink cartridges that circumvent their ink-jet printer DRM. 😁

  • Fishy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Maybe I’m a picker eater, but I think I’d rather have an inauthentic product than eating a microchip.

    • Rescuer6394@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      as other people pointed out, is a sticker on the outside, on the hard part.

      unless you are very hungry and have good teeth, you will not eat it.

      yet, since is applied on edible product, it needs to be edible.

      • Fishy@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I know. There’s an answer above where I say that. Writing a jokey comment doesn’t mean you haven’t read it.

        • happyhippo@feddit.it
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          1 year ago

          Well then the right thing to do would be to edit your misinformation-spreading comment in this thread, don’t you think?

          I’m not reading ALL of your comments

          • Fishy@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Haha no. Cause I read the article before I posted my comment. I’m not spreading misinformation.

            The misinformation is in the title of the article. Report the article instead of going after someone who read it, and is obviously not talking about the article seriously.

            It’s funny though when someone says read the article doesn’t read the one of the top tree of comments they are replying to where I explicitly say it’s a non issue 10 hours before your comment.

            Maybe you want to edit your comment.

            • happyhippo@feddit.it
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              1 year ago

              We are definitely not sorting comments by the same criterion, then.

              Your other comment was nowhere to be seen 😉

    • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      What if the inauthentic product is made by my mate dodgy Dave who got a load of cheap milk and some dirty old metalwork, it’s ok he flushed a load of industrial cleaner through them and it’s good stuff they use it to clean engines at his brother’s garage…

      You’d be far better off not buying a prestige product and getting a good quality cheese from a reputable manufacturer at a price that doesn’t include a huge markup due to perceived historic significance

      • Riskable@programming.dev
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        As long as Dodgy Dave passed his mandatory FDA inspections I’d eat his cheese.

        You think the big brands don’t use industrial cleaner? LOL

        • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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          But the point is if the labels are fake you don’t know if they got inspected, it’s organized crime gangs running it and they’re not really known for being sticklers for the law…

          The cleaning products and procedures are heavily regulated in food production because when they’re not people cut corners and use cheaper things without regard for long-term health effects

            • nxdefiant@startrek.website
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              There was a HUGE scandal in the UK over rotten horse meat getting mixed into basically everything. This was part of the whole Ikea horse meat story from years ago.

            • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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              It’s a supply chain issue, criminal gangs fake paperwork and all that stuff hence the cheese people going for more extreme security measures - you could be eating Dave’s cheese in an expensive restaurant, as far as they know it’s ligit but the importer or supplier duped them

      • Fishy@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I mean I was being a little jocular in my comment (since this tracker is on the outside) it doesn’t really matter.

        But by preferring “inauthentic” I was thinking something like “Greek style cheese” which is just feta but made outside of Greece or sparking wine for champagne. So food standards still apply.

        But yeah, they are trying to stop fraudulent claims.

    • Otter@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      That’s because makers of Parmigiano-Reggiano are implanting microchips into the casings of their 90-pound cheese wheels as the latest move to ward off counterfeiters, The Wall Street Journal reported.

      If it’s just going in the casings, then it wouldn’t be eaten I guess?

  • Thann
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    1 year ago

    its funny that some ppl are paranoid that bill gates is trying to microchip them with a vaccine when they probably already have been by the fucking itailians

  • Obinice@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Not really putting them “into” their cheese, just the labels that bind with their outer casing of the cheese wheel. Still neat.

    They are being placed on the casein label, a food-safe label commonly used in cheese production, which is placed on the cheese wheel.

    • over_clox@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Okay…

      That still begs the question, why are they considered edible? Are people eating the labels? 🤔

    • HiddenLayer5
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      Except it is very common to boil cheese rind for broth. And prolonged exposure high temperatures tend to break down pollutants into even more reactive forms as well as draw them out into solution. Worse if it’s in like a commercial steam oven or pressure cooker that can get much higher than 100 C, you know, like many professional restaurants make a point of using.

      I doubt it will be that easy to identify and scrape off, because that would defeat the point, probably hidden deep within the layers. It says it can’t be read remotely so very unlikely it’s just an off the shelf RFID sticker you can easily see and peel off. I also doubt a lot of people will know it’s there and that it needs to be removed in the first place, or they’ll take their word for it that it’s edible even though they are absolutely in no position to make that claim and have definitely not done the rigorous medical research/testing to actually justify a claim like that.

  • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I guess in that case I should probably seek out the counterfeit versions of it since they’re now apparently better than the originals.

  • Schlemmy
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    1 year ago

    Next up. Improve your wireless network with cheese.

  • AfricanExpansionist
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    1 year ago

    If I can make cheese good enough to pretend that it’s another brand, I’m gonna just slap my own label on it

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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      It’s not Parmigiana-Reggiano if it doesn’t come from the Parmigiana-Reggiano region of France. Everything else is just sparkling cheese.

        • Thisisforfun@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          🤓

          Ackshually…

          The holes in the swiss cheese is due to contaminants and they’ve formalised the process because it turned out that their cleanliness standards removed too many contaminants.

          (Sorry, I’m also a hit at parties)

            • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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              You’re not crazy, I was just fucking around. People aren’t agreeing with me, they recognize I’m joking, and they are probably downvoting you because you responded as though I was being serious.

              There’s an old reference that Champagne isn’t Champagne unless it comes from the Champagne region of France. Otherwise it’s sparkling wine. It’s become a meme (although the joke predates the popular use of the term “meme”) to say X isn’t X unless yadda yadda sparkling Y. I left the bit about it being from France because I thought it would be funny to be confidently incorrect about that, like all of Europe is French.

              • Kilgore Trout@feddit.it
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                1 year ago

                I really didn’t know how much Italian cheese is known abroad. Usually the French specialties are more famous.

                • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  In the USA, parigiana is practically synonymous with italian food. We have this powdered cheese product that comes in a plastic can that sort of replicates the msg flavor but has a gritty feel due to an anti-caking agent we add to the powder.

                  But fancy italian cheeses are widely available as well, and many grocery stores carry proper parmesan, romano, provolone, pecorino, gorgonzola, asiago, mascarpone, ricotta, and of course mozzarella. Ironically, it’s the areas where dairy farming is most popular where you find fewer international options, but that’s just because there will be 20 local variations of cheddar.

            • Haywire@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              How would we know you are really Italian without scanning your microchip?

    • Petter1@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Yea, many swiss brands have problems protecting their IP in America. Just recently Emmentaler lost its IP there, because Emmentaler describes a sort of cheese which is like our Swiss Emmentaler in America vs here in Switzerland only cheese from the Emmental is allowed to be called a Emmentaler.

      • ours@lemmy.film
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        1 year ago

        Also for the Gruyère cheese it was recently announced the US will ignore Switzerland’s claims. That despite the fact Gruyère and Emmentaler are traditionally made with raw milk, something that’s illegal in the US.

        • Petter1@lemm.ee
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          It’s ridiculous that while we can’t protect our cheese in America they just successfully protect pictures of any apple (even real ones) here in Switzerland… Well, luckily only in connection with technology, but yea REAL Apples…