This appears obvious to a Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale Reggio Emilia (ABTRE) producer, who invariably, unceasingly gives his all to achieve a satisfying result. This resultmay not always turn out to be perfect, for a variety of reasons but certainly not out of negligence. To avoid less than excellent products being sold on the market, in 1987, whenit wasfounded, the Consortium of Producers of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar from Reggio Emilia set aboutdrafting a series of production regulations aimed at defining methods and assuring quality.

This was no easy task, given theparticular method involved in producing ABTRE, which is obtained by processing the must of selected grapes grown exclusivelyintheprovince ofReggioEmilia, and the lack of technical and scientific instruments able to establish the product’s quality features.

With a serious, transparent, longsighted approach, the decision was taken to entrust the task of identifying the quality features of the products, before sale, to boards of "independent" tasters, whose judgementis final. When the EC measure adopted on 15 May 2000 placed Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Reggio Emilia on the list of PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) products, thus entitling producers to use the appropriate symbol, the Consortium of Producers of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar from Reggio Emilia was exonerated from carrying out checks, since the prestigious recognition set the following rules, from that moment forth:

1) all producers had tobe certified by an independent Certification Body authorised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies, the only entity entitled to issue certifications and authorisations
to produce, binding upon strict, proven compliance with the production regulations;

2) all parties involved had to undergo analyticaltesting
in ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratories to verify the density and acidity values indicated in the production regulations, and to be subsequently subjected to sensory analysis;

3) all bottling activities had to take place in the presence
of the Certification Body entrusted with carrying out checks on the filling up of the phials, their closure and sealing with wax, and, at the end of the operations, to hand them over to the producer, complete with progressively number stamps able to guarantee product traceability.

The ruling also emphasisedthat:
A) Products deemed suit able had to be bottled in the province of Reggio Emilia, exclusively in the appropriate containers of the shape and size set out in the production regulations;
B) No reference was tobe made to the year of production of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Reggio Emilia; the denomination "EXTRA VECCHIO" was authorised to appear on products agedfor atleast 25years.