Gower Peninsula lamb flies the flag for Britain as the first new product to be registered under the post-Brexit GI scheme

This Kat is, in fact, a sheep

The first product to be protected under the UK’s post-Brexit Geographical Indication (GI) scheme, which came into effect on 1 January 2021, was announced on 11 August as Gower Salt Marsh Lamb.

Meat produced from sheep born and reared on South Wales’s Gower Peninsula will now be protected thanks to its recognition as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). Such schemes are used to label products which come from certain regions or with traditional methods to ensure that imitations cannot be sold as authentic. As a result, Gower Lamb producers are now able to affix a GI logo on their products. 

The lamb holds this special status because of the thousand-year history of raising sheep in this area, where the coastal environment and vegetation, on which the flocks are free to roam and graze, gives the meat a unique taste. Instead of the more typical ovine diet of grass and grains, Gower Peninsula sheep eat an enviably varied diet including sea lavender, samphire, and sorrel. Around 3,500 lambs are raised in this manner per year. 

For UK-produced products, this scheme replaces the EU version of PDO, which affords similar protection across the bloc to products such as champagne and Parmigiano cheese. However, food producers should note that the new scheme only applies within Scotland, Wales, and England, with the EU scheme continuing to apply to Northern Ireland. 

Moreover, more than 5,000 UK-produced products, such as Melton Mowbray pork pies, were already part of the EU scheme prior to the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020. This means that they were already protected automatically in the UK when the new scheme came into effect.