In an increasingly complex and competitive global market, the defence of typical products is a mission to be pursued in an institutional, coordinated and organized manner.
For this reason, after the recognition of the Designation of Origin for Genovese Basil by the European Union in 2005, the Consorzio di Tutela del Basilico Genovese DOP (Consortium for the Protection of PDO Genoese Basil) was established and, since 2008, it has been promoting and defending the symbolic product of Liguria, representing its producers.
Ligurian companies producing PDO Genovese Basil can join the Consortium, which was established on the initiative of the producers themselves and has been recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, once they register in the Certification System; currently about 98% of the companies participate in the project, with the aim of sharing its protection actions and participating in the promotion of the certified product.
The Consortium pursues the following purposes:
– Promotion and enhancement, through the dissemination of the brand and the peculiar characteristics of the PDO product, towards consumers and traders using promotional programs;
– Protection of product identity by raising the awareness of producers, to keep its traditional characteristics unaltered, with specific protection actions;
– Defence against fraud and misleading messages, implementing the project agreed with the Central Inspectorate for the protection of quality and repression of fraud on agri-food products.
On the market, it is possible to find the PDO Genovese Basil in the typical bouquets or in the bunches labelled with the PDO brands and composed of whole plants, hand-picked one by one. This is the “historical” packaging technique, created to preserve the freshness and fragrance of the product. The label of fresh PDO Genovese Basil shows the complete data of the producer, for total traceability, guaranteed by official controls approved by the Ministry.
Basil intended for the processing industry (for the production of pesto sauce and other food preparations) is harvested by mowing by removing portions of intact plants with a maximum of four pairs of true leaves. The basil must be processed together with the relative tax documentation, which must contain the PDO definition.
The PDO Genovese Basil for the processing industry is an ingredient of excellence in food preparations: it can be found with its full name in the ingredients list. Furthermore, its presence as an ingredient is often recognizable also on the label front of food preparations thanks to the presence of the logo and wording of the PDO Genovese Basil, in compliance with the labelling rules and with specific authorization from the Protection Consortium.
The PDO Genovese Basil guarantees:
