The European Union has awarded Neapolitan pizza the "traditional speciality guaranteed" label, protecting it from imitations. Neapolitan pizza is considered the benchmark for pizzas worldwide, and pizza makers in Naples have fought to prevent shoddy foreign copies. To qualify for the Neapolitan label, pizza restaurants must now use only San Marzano tomatoes, have diameters no larger than 35cm, and be cooked in a wood-fired oven on a stone slab by hand-stretching the dough. The Italian Agriculture Minister said the label would prevent imitations that do not reflect the true, unique Neapolitan pizza.

1. real Neapolitan pizza, says EU
December 11, 2009
ROME: The pizza makers of Naples have been awarded the coveted ''traditional speciality
guaranteed'' label by the European Union, winning protection from imitators.
Neapolitan pizza is regarded as the benchmark for pizzas around the world and the guardians of
the city's centuries-old pizza-making tradition have been fighting a rearguard action for years
against shoddy foreign imitations.
But now pizza restaurants from New York to Nice will be forced to conform to a strict list of
ingredients - only San Marzano tomatoes will suffice - and a specific method of cooking if they
want to give their food the Neapolitan label.
Genuine pizza napoletana must be no more than 35 centimetres in diameter, have a raised crust
of 1 to 2 centimetres and a base no more than a third of a centimetre thick. The dough must be
stretched by hand and cooked in a wood-fired oven on a stone slab.
The Italian Agriculture Minister, Luca Zaia, said the best-known product of Naples had ''for too
long been the subject of imitations which have nothing to do with the real and unique Neapolitan
pizza''.
Historians believe that something very much like pizza dough was used by the Etruscans between
1200BC and 550BC. But, though authorities disagree, pizza in its modern form seems to have
appeared in Naples in the 18th century.
The Margherita version was created in 1889 and named after Queen Margherita of Savoy. Its
ingredients reflected the colours of the newly unified Italian state - red from tomatoes, white from
mozzarella and green from basil.
The ''traditional specialty guarantee'' label, created in 1992, says that a product has to conform to
traditional ingredients and cooking methods but does not have to be made in a specific area. The
EU's ''protected geographical status'' prevents regional foods from imitation or copying in other
areas.
Telegraph, London; Guardian News & Media