Italy's famous salty Parma ham can only be sliced and the country's gourmet Grana Padano cheese can only be grated in the regions where they are produced, the European Union's supreme court ruled today.
"Maintaining the quality and reputation of Grana Padano cheese and Parma ham justifies the rule that the product must be grated or sliced and packaged in the region of production," the European Court of Justice said in a statement.
The verdict ends years of hard lobbying by the producers in northern Italy who hailed the court ruling as a victory for consumers.
The Parma ham case hinges around the producers' 1997 complaint against British supermarket chain Asda, owned by US retail giant Wal-Mart, for offering its own ham, produced in the Parma region but packed and sliced in Britain.
Asda stopped this practice some time ago and its Parma ham meets all the Italian criteria. The producers say Parma ham may be sliced for a customer at a delicatessen counter, but if it is pre-packaged, this must be done in the region.
The court battle was fought under EU rules giving special certificates of protection to some 570 local delicacies, including Scottish beef, English Stilton cheese, Greek Kalamata olives and Rioja wine from Spain.
The court said grating cheese and slicing ham could damage their quality and undermine this protective certificate.
Asda spokeswoman Rachel Fellows said the six-year spat was "barmy".
"Our argument is that we were allowed to slice it in front of customers on the delicatessen counter, and that's Parma ham, but we weren't allowed to take the same ham, slice it and pack it elsewhere, and call it Parma," Ms Fellows said.
"You can also slice it out of sight in a restaurant kitchen and that's fine, so it seems to us a bit of a nonsense that we can't do essentially the same thing".
The cheese case involved Ravil, a company in France that imports whole Grana Padano cheeses from Italy and then grates and distributes them in France.
To protect their brands, producers of Parma ham and Grana Padano, a tasty, hard cheese similar to Parmesan often used in pasta and risotto dishes, registered both Italian names with the EU in 1996.