I don’t know what a chile pepper blitz is; I’m more familiar with the German version wherein you invade France, occupy Paris, and then Quentin Tarantino makes a movie around it. Apparently, however, New Mexico officials have launched a “chile blitz” aimed at spotting fake New Mexico chiles. It’s an idea along the same lines as Italy’s proprietary take on “real” Neapolitan pizza or France’s claim to champagne.
“It puts the New Mexican peppers in the basket…”
The state law forbids anyone from knowingly advertising or selling chile peppers that claim to be from New Mexico but are from somewhere else.
The law also bans anyone from selling chile from other states with images of New Mexico cities, towns or recognizable state images in advertisements.
Any one who grows or sells fresh chile and advertises it as “New Mexico chile” must register with the NMDA Standards and Consumer services division by completing a verification/registration form, which was updated earlier this year. The verification form must accompany each load of chile and through to the point of sale. For processed chile products, only a one-time form is required.
A list of registered vendors and products is available at the NMDA site.
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Managing Editor | Mark is a freelance journalist based out of Los Angeles. He’s our Do-It-Yourself specialist, and happily agrees to try pretty much every twisted project we come up with.
