At the same time that it created the AOP (the Protected Origin Nomenclature or PDO) in 1992, the European Union introduced another product definition – the IGP which translates as Geographic Protection Indicator. It is a less strict label than an AOP, mainly in terms of the somewhat partial link between a product and its "terroir" (rural region), but also in how and where it is made. Only one of the three phases in the production process (origin of the raw materials, manufacture and maturing) needs to be undertaken in the geographic area under consideration.
But one should not take it that an IGP is just the "waiting room" for finally making it into an AOP! Some cheeses never want to become AOPs and remain IGPs simply because these stand for a variety of versions. For instance: several levels of fat content. An AOP only admits one particular level, because that is what makes it unique.
Thus, a Tomme de Savoie cheese which is made in the Savoie region, with milk from Savoie following a Savoie recipe and matured only in that region – in short, you see that all the stages of production are well and truly from Savoie – remains an IGP, because historically it has always been made with more or less skimmed milk (if Reblochon cheese used full cream milk, Tomme was often – but not always! – produced after having more or less skimmed the milk to make butter). So... its guardians have included in its specifications a variety of fatty matter levels.
So that shuts the door to becoming an AOP (PDO)
And that's what makes it a unique cheese!
In France the IGP has often replaced regional labels.
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