Halloumi and hellim: The story of an island and its cheese
b"
Halloumi, or hellim as its known by Turkish Cypriots, is now ubiquitous in our supermarkets, fast food chains and on restaurant menus. We import almost 50 per cent of the cheese produced in Cyprus. But its significance on the divided island from where it hails is bigger than you might imagine, and never more so than right now. In 2021, halloumi gained PDO status which means that any cheese labelled as halloumi within the EU has to be made on the Mediterranean island to a traditional recipe. And as Leyla Kazim finds, the dairy industry is having to adapt fast. \\n \\nBut halloumi is more than just an export. On a divided island (there has been a border maintained by the UN since 1964), halloumi (Greek) or hellim (Turkish) is produced by both sides, and has been for millennia. In this programme Leyla travels to Cyprus to meet the people producing hellim and halloumi, to hear about its present and gauge it's future. She\\u2019ll watch it being made at scale in factories and in kitchens. She\\u2019ll meet dairy farmers and question the officials behind the new PDO status. And most importantly, she\\u2019ll taste a lot of halloumi.
Presented by Leyla Kazim\\nProduced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury
"