Police to tackle dodgy feta

Tabitha Morgan
BBC correspondent in Nicosia

Greece has declared war on bad cheese after a consignment of feta exported to Norway was discovered to contain listeria.

We will be merciless Agriculture Minister Giorgos Drys

The contaminated cheese is a considerable embarrassment to the Greek Government, which only recently managed to convince the European Union that it had the exclusive right to use the word 'feta'.

Agriculture Minister Giorgos Drys has pledged to set up a special squad of feta police after more than two tons of listeria-contaminated cheese was exported to Norway.

Mr Drys said the new police would be merciless, adding that the incident was insulting for the country, its institutions and its product.

The firm which exported the food has had its licence revoked and faces prosecution.

Wrangling

But this isn't just a question of hurt pride and preserving that nation's reputation for manufacturing a crumbly dairy product.

Feta cheese is one of the country's main exports.

After years of wrangling with Brussels, the Greek authorities finally managed to secure sole right to use the name feta last year.

They argued that genuine feta cheese could by definition only be produced from the milk of goats and sheep that grazed on Greek pastures.

It's not clear whether any of the contaminated cheese got as far as the Norwegian market, but even if it didn't the feta row is clearly causing a stink in the Greek cheese industry.