Quality food production: between protection needs and the safeguarding of the free market

Italy, like other European member states, has a morphological structure suited to high-quality food production. These products represent a link to the territory and are a heritage to be protected, including through specific PDO and PGI certification mechanisms, which generate significant private spaces.This paper will focus solely on the issue of typical products, with the aim of reflecting on what, from a purely legal point of view, is at the heart of the matter: the ability to balance the competitive de-mands underlying the free market economy with the scope of the exclusive rights offered by the regulations governing indications of origin, which aim to protect not only the distinctiveness due to the terroir and the gastronomic and cultural heritage linked to a given product, but also the reputation and investments made by operators in the sector.