Ġbejna tan-nagħaġ declared protected after EU accepts application

Malta’s ġbejna tan-nagħaġ has acquired the EU status of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) after securing approval from the European Commission.

This is the first PDO for Malta, which was the only EU country to not have a food product on the EU’s protected food heritage.

While the European Commission has not made an official announcement yet, the European Parliament president Robert Metsola shared the news in a Facebook post.

“All this means that it will not only be us Maltese and Gozitans who protect and promote the sheep's goat with foreigners and tourists, but it will be Europe itself that advertises this Maltese product as a product artisanal and regional. Unique in the world,” she said.

It was the Xirka Produtturi Nagħaġ u Mogħoż that filed the proposal in 2019 to assign the ġbejna a protected status.

However, the initial application was rejected after the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority decided that the term “ġbejna” alone is too generic in Malta, as it refers to cheeselets made from various types of milk.

After the rejection, the Xirka Produtturi Nagħaġ u Mogħoż put forward the term “ġbejna tan-nagħaġ”, which specifies that the cheese should be made of sheep milk only. Moreover, the sheep must be reared in local flocks.

The ġbejna tan-nagħaġ can be sold fresh (‘ġbejna tan-nagħaġ friska’), air-dried (‘ġbejna tan-nagħaġ niexfa’) or pickled and peppered (‘ġbejna tan-nagħaġ tal-bżar’).