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@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

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

  • 𝜏au@discuss.tchncs.de
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    11 months ago

    To save you a click (although none of the other commenters seem to have read the article anyway): The microchips aren’t embedded into the actual cheese that you eat, but are part of the label attached to the outside rind. Nobody will be eating microchips.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    11 months 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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      11 months ago

      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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      11 months ago

      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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        11 months ago

        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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          11 months 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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            11 months 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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            11 months 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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            11 months 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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            11 months ago

            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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      11 months ago

      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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    11 months 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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      11 months ago

      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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    11 months 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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      11 months 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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        11 months 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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          11 months 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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            11 months 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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              11 months 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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      11 months 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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        11 months ago

        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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          11 months ago

          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

            • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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              11 months ago

              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

            • nxdefiant@startrek.website
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              11 months ago

              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.

      • Fishy@lemmy.world
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        11 months 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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      11 months 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?

  • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
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    11 months 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.

    • Petter1@lemm.ee
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      11 months 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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        11 months 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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          11 months ago

          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…

  • NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
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    11 months ago

    Why are they not using those nanotech microchip trackers that are small enough to fit in a vaccine, and that can communicate with a satellite without any need for a radio or battery?

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    11 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The next time you dig into a bowl of pasta with freshly grated parmesan, you could accidentally be eating a microchip.

    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.

    Parmigiano-Reggiano must be made in a particular area of northern Italy’s Emilia Romagna region and with specific production standards and techniques.

    The microchip can then be scanned to pull up a unique serial ID that buyers can use to ensure they’ve got the real thing.

    “We keep fighting with new methods,” Alberto Pecorari, whose job is to protect the product’s authenticity for a group that represents Parmigiano makers, told the Journal.

    Parmigiano-Reggiano is among the many food products that are formally protected in the European Union, including Champagne from France and Feta from Greece.


    The original article contains 324 words, the summary contains 144 words. Saved 56%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!