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Confectionery wars: Italian artisans battle Swiss firm Lindt over chocolate recipe

Italian artisan chocolate makers are going head-to-head with the Swiss confection giant Lindt over gianduiotto, a delicacy from Turin that is the subject of heated discussion over its ingredients.

The issue has become so serious that 40 artisan chocolatiers, along with commercial chocolate makers Ferrero, Venchi and Domori, have applied for a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) from the EU.

The PGI emphasises the relationship between a specific geographic region and the product, where a particular quality, reputation or other characteristic is essentially attributable to its geographical origin.

However, the consortium is facing a number of obstacles, primarily from Lindt, the parent owners of the Italian firm Caffarel, which has staked a claim as the inventors of gianduiotto.

"Our objective is to find an agreement which satisfies all parties and which allows Caffarel to protect the historic value of its brand," the company told AFP.

The Luserna San Giovanni-based firm added that it had never opposed the recognition of a PGI certificate, recognising that the mark of quality would, "contribute to the prestige of gianduiotto in Italy and across the world".

Caffarel fears another gianduiotto PGI would cause consumer confusion

Caffarel currently has its own brand of gianduiotto, ‘Gianduia 1865’, which the firm claims is the original that it invented in 1865. Caffarel’s fear is that another PGI would “cause confusion”.

Its argument has the backing of Roberto Lofaro, a Turin-based consultant and writer, who focuses on services and R&D in technology and data.

Posting on LinkedIn, Lofaro highlighted moves by the local producers to “invoke a right to follow their own path and have a de facto takeover of the brand by linking it exclusively to local produce for a premium positioning”.

“I did not see back then a local consortium of defenders of local brands making a better offer to retain the local heritage,” he added.

“It would be [idealistic] if the PGI on a brand created by a company were based on the ‘loyalty to the original recipe’ – as if a company were unable to evolve its own recipes and still retain them.”

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Lindt request the inclusion of milk to the gianduiotto’s ingredient line-up

Lofaro refers to Caffarel’s insistence that powdered milk should be included to the list of gianduiotto’s ingredients, which currently include cocoa, sugar and hazelnuts.

More specifically, Lindt is proposing that 10% of powdered milk be added to the current recipe as well as a lower amount of hazelnuts, approximately 26% compared to the current 30-45%.

“The majority of our consumers prefer our versions that contain milk,” Lindt & Sprüngli told POLITICO.

“We do not want to change the recipe for the traditional specialty,” they added. “However, in our opinion, a wider scope, allowing milk, is also well established and common.”

At the time of writing, the chocolatier’s case has so far been met with resistance by Italy's ministry of agriculture.

Regulatory situation on the future of gianduiotto

However, on the European front, there appeared to be movement with European Commissioner for Agriculture, with Janusz Wojciechowski, stating in a meeting late last year that the Commission, “would do everything in its power to defend the link between product brands and their city or region of origin”.

“In the light of the checks carried out, the Region and the Committee intend to continue the request forwarded to the Ministry….of the correctness of their claims to the protection of their territory.”

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Guido Castagna, president of the Gianduiotto Committee in Turin told AFP: “For us, adding powdered milk to chocolate is like diluting wine with water."

"We don't want to take anything away from Caffarel. We're not fighting a war against Caffarel. For us Caffarel can easily continue its production," he added.

Antonio Borra, a lawyer for the PGI committee said, “Caffarel knows where to find us and if they think there may be an opening, we are ready to discuss it with them.”

He warned: "There are points on which we cannot compromise, starting with the name of Turin, which belongs to the whole territory, not a single company."