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<p> The provenance of processed foods is a significant quality attribute for many consumers. However, widespread mislabelling or adulteration of high-value foods is known to take place on a global scale and, with regard to Irish farmhouse cheeses, it is believed that the mislabelling of imported foreign cheeses as Irish does happen and may be a growing problem. There is also concern that not all cheeses sold with Irish-sounding brand names originate on the island of Ireland. An analytical effort is therefore warranted to facilitate the development of methods to confirm the "Irish origin" claims of such products.</p>
<p>This project, which is a collaboration between Teagasc Food Research Centre, Ashtown and the Institute for Global Food Security in Queen’s University Belfast, aims to develop a robust fingerprint model which will characterise Irish-produced farmhouse cheeses using these analytical approaches. The possibility of labelling solutions to augment consumer choice will also be explored.</p>