History of Gruyère AOC

That started off a period of imitated cheeses and freely invented trade marks of the Gruyere beyond national borders.

The 18th and 19th centuries were difficult times. The canton of Fribourg was "exporting" its human resources since people were lured away by higher wages in the canton of Vaud and Neuchâtel, in the Savoy area, in Franche-Compté and the Jura. That started off a period of imitated cheeses and freely invented trade marks of the Gruyere beyond national borders.

In 1856 at the agricultural competition in Paris two exhibitors from Fribourg were awarded gold medals for their Gruyere classified by one member of the selection committee as "the best cheeses worldwide" and "excellent products from cows of Fribourg". Those awards boosted Gruyere consumption, and from the1860 ies on the cheese was even shipped to English and Dutch colonies on the Indian subcontinent.

In 1864 a French-Swiss trade agreement was signed which aimed at modifying products to be shipped to faraway places so that they had a longer shelf-life.

Towards the end of 1860 the canton of Fribourg had up to 254 Gruyere production sites (alpine places included), 193 of which belonged to an association.

In 1873 R.Schatzmann published "Le manuel des fromageries" (the cheese makers' manual).

In 1888 the canton of Fribourg founded the first milk producers'organisation in the French part of Switzerland; from 1890 on the milk co-operatives have been required by the government of Fribourg to regularly revise their articles.

Without any protection of the declaration of origin, the Gruyere cheese became the victim of counterfeit products and had but its prime quality to justify itself.