Italy cracks down on $2 billion fake market with (micro)chips in its cheese

A microchip inserted into a QR code label is seen on a Parmesan cheese wheel at 4 Madonne Caseificio in Modena, Italy

Yes, producers of the world-famous Parmigiano Reggiano cheese are fighting fakes with the help of microchips.’s Emilia-Romagna region. It is one of the most expensive cheeses in the world – and one of the most counterfeited, costing the industry an estimated $2 billion. To combat the counterfeiting, the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium is testing a new technology that uses microchips to track the cheese from the factory to people’s homes.

These p-chips are smaller than a grain of salt and planted inside 2D codes, QR codes or data-matrix codes that will be part of a casein label, commonly used to identify food and cheese.

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