France has AOP, AOC, IGP, Label Rouge, AB, STG… and then Nutri-Score comes in like a polite nutritional bouncer.
If you’ve ever stood in a French supermarket holding a cheese that looks emotionally superior to you, wondering whether you’re buying quality, origin, tradition, or a medically supervised lifestyle choice, this video is your survival guide.
In this video, I explain:
What the official French and EU quality/origin labels really mean
The difference between AOP vs AOC vs IGP
What Label Rouge actually guarantees
How AB and the EU organic “leaf” work
Why STG protects tradition without tying it to one place
And how to read Nutri-Score without starting a diplomatic incident with a wedge of cheese
You’ll also get the key rule that makes all of this make sense:
SIQO labels explain origin/quality/tradition, while Nutri-Score explains nutritional balance.
Different questions. Same shopping cart.
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50 Comments
PATREON: https://patreon.com/c/JohnnyBenoit
BUY ME A COFFEE: https://buymeacoffee.com/johnny_benoit
GO FUND ME: https://gofund.me/0d83c9eff
MY FRENCH NOVEL:
On Amazon US: https://a.co/d/hYPjyjV
On Amazon UK: https://amzn.eu/d/bEHFNyL
On Amazon France: https://amzn.to/4mVHvKJ
On Amazon Spain: https://amzn.eu/d/4zCTv7C
On Amazon Germany: https://amzn.eu/d/7scuITn
on Amazon Canada: https://a.co/d/6z7b8HI
Enquiries: johnny.benoit@hotmail.com
After watching this I am depressed. I feel the need for a bag of Cheet-os.
Merci! 😊
Splendid. The bewildering range of cheeses in Normandy alone could not remain distinct without such controls. Thankfully, it isn't necessary to have an encyclopaedic knowledge in order to eat well, nor even a companion who has such a gift, merely the willingness to: a) admit that there is so much more to learn and b) enjoy the exploration.
Off topic, but where is that gorgeous hillside shown at 5:19? LOVE it.
I love your organic studio! My favorite phrase: “Certified nonsense”😂👍🏻
Great video! Would you consider doing one on labeling for food allergies and protections for people who might be allergic to certain ingredients and cross-contamination? Like gluten, dairy, nuts, shellfish — understanding that sort of labeling would be very helpful (thank you for considering the request).
I can’t believe you just made me fall in love with French bureaucracy.
Quintessential Johnny 💕
Tu aurais pu mettre le béret pour nous parler du terroir, ça fait plus sérieux.
My wife always gets a chuckle with milk being worse than some likely poisonous synthetic product on the Nutri-Score label.😂
We denizens of the USA get by on a diet of pure unadulterated bovine feces packaged with a Florida-tan-colored label and smelling strongly of senile dementia.
Absolutely delightful and entertaining, as usual. Thanks for clearing up all of this alphabet soup.
I wish our government would give a damn about the poison that is added to the majority of the food we eat in America. The US allows a myriad of chemicals including dyes, pesticides, antibiotics and other toxins to make products bigger, last longer, look more appealing, etc. Most of what we have is also highly processed.
I was wondering whether all these cheeses sold in the USA labeled as “Product of France” are really produced in France.
@Johnny Benoit; Excellent! Merci beaucoup.
Well done!❤
But how do the cows feel? Is all of the milk to make cheese taken only from French cows, that is the question.
What a terrific video…yes, French bureaucracy but real care and pride in the quality of the cuisine, the place it came from, etc. Great presentation too – you make all of your content delightful, informative and wonderfully humorous!!! 😊
🙋🏻♀️🇦🇺
Thank you. I am now less likely to weep the next time I visit the cheese case.
Of course it is dressed better than me 😅. You are so authentic, thank you
As someone who is new to grocery shopping in France, thank you so much! You are very helpful.
I love it !!’n
Et encore … Quand on s'y connait un peu plus que le pékin moyen , on se rends compte que la qualité a bien baissée … même dans le bio :/
Genre les tomates " bio " qui poussent en hydroponie en Bretagne … Remplies de flotte, très peu de goût car manque d'éléments nutritifs.
Le bio est galvaudé de nos jours, c'est pu ce qu'il était il ya 20-25 ans, au début du label on sentait une vraie différence de gout et de bienfaits santé … Maintenant , bof, parfois je mange du bio et je me dit " pourquoi j'ai payé aussi cher ? il a le même gout que du standard bourré de pesticides "
Suffit de manger des fruits et légumes du potager pour comprendre tout de suite qu'il y a un bug dans la matrix.
En fait , il faudrait un nouveau label : " cultivé sur sol vivant " , encore mieux que le " bio de supermarché " comme j'appel ça.
Cultiver sans pesticides et sans herbicides , c'est pas suffisant comme critères de qualité, le label AB ( bio ) n'est pas assez stricte… du moins pour les plantes , niveau produits animaliers ça à l'air d'aller.
I love the country background and nice to hear the organic includes animal welfare.
Just enjoying a delicious comté 30 mois AOP bought last weekend on our house scouting trip in Normandy while watching this very entertaining en informative video. soon I Will be refered to as Le Belge …😂🎉😊
Very interesting, thank you very much, vidéo excellente , bravo! There are appellations that are not protected! So you'll fall for it. Let me give you a global example: Moutarde de Dijon “Dijon mustard.” It doesn't have to be from Dijon and can come from California or elsewhere… This name, which the people of Dijon did not protect in the past, is simply an old process that removes the husks from mustard seeds (as in “old-fashioned mustard” "Moutarde à l'ancienne"). In fact, most of the seeds come from Canada… the real Dijon mustard is called Burgundy mustard "Moutarde de Bourgogne" et elle est protégée! You can find it at Carrefour under the name “Reflet de France,” this is the Fallot (it is a company) mustard. In this case, all the ingredients come from Burgundy: the mustard seeds must be grown in Burgundy, and the water and vinegar must come from Burgundy wines only…
I highly recommend visiting the Fallot establishment in Beaune, where you can learn all about this and even make your own mustard, at least a little bit.
Very informative! Unlike in the US, where the only thing that matters is profit, and the food makes you sick and obese, in France, the gov. cares about the people coming first. Americans are killing their people with their crappy factory food.
Where are you? I can't stop looking at those wonderful woods and rolling hills in the background. I want to live there, now!!!
Could you make your novel for Kindle? You would reach many more readers, including me! Nowadays, most people prefer to download their books onto their Kindles. Danke!
But does anyone actually check the stickers are genuine 🤔
Hi Johnny – thank you for making the video I didn’t even realize I needed… but I guess I really did! 😂
I’ve long known that the AB label means bio, and I vaguely understood that Label Rouge signaled higher quality, and that AOP/AOC/IGP all pointed to some kind of protected origin. But I had no idea about the actual standards behind each one until you broke it all down.
Super fun and super funny video. Really appreciate you putting this together – I learned a lot! – Brendan 🎉
😊
It’s wonderful to see you outside instead of in the studio. Beautiful country. Is this Charentes? I think we need a video in the different French cheeses—their flavor, the animal of origin (goat’s milk, cow’s milk, etc), what each is best used for…
Excellent video. Glad to see you out and about and away from the green screen. 😻
French food is overrated. I’d never trade it for Polish food.
I mean – for the real Polish food you get only in Poland.
I love it…😊😊 will definitely enjoy grocery shopping knowing best products are labeled…..
Really enjoying all the vlogs. Very helpful and useful information. Thank you for including the spelling and pronunciations of the various things you are speaking about – it's so helpful to hear when trying to learn. I'm constantly repeating after you attempting to mimic.
So….no Sloppy Joe burgers with Krispy Kreme donuts instead of a bun then???
Oh Johnny, where you're standing is the perfect rural area I am dreaming of my little farm in France to be! 🤩🐕🐇🐥🐎🌳🌼 (info in your video so helpful. Merci beaucoup!)
French food is better than English and American food, I agree.
Bonjour…salut. Je suis label rouge
MERCI BEAUCOUP JOHNNY!!!!!!
If I get there before I'm a stain on the floor, I "look forward" to exposing French neighbours to my can-heavy vegan microwave cuisine…though it's only really the salt content and it's only "organic" Japanese soy sauce that properly tips it over the line…
God bless the French! Their passion and commitment to food excellence gives me reason to live 🙂 Thank you for another insightful video!
1:41 Did you just say…HAM?
Don't summon Bagagwa, please!
Cheese is not food en France. C'est une religion 😀
Where are the cats? I was waiting for them at the end. 😢