The EU Protected Designation of Origin items come from regions where the soil and grasses are truly different than other regions. Cheeses made from cows, goats or sheep which grazed on mountainy grasses and fields are truly different than cows, goats or sheep which grazed on low level grasses and fields in flat plains. Plus, the lineage of each herd is protected and MUST come from those very regions, similar to the way purebred dogs have paperwork proving their ancestry.
I've been to cheese tastings, where a fresh 50lb wheel of Parmesan and other smaller cheeses were cut open. There were cheese connoisseurs there, (the equivalent to wine sommeliers, I don't know if they have a particular name,) where their taste buds are so finely tuned, they could tell you the how long the cheeses have been aged and their authenticity. A true PDO cheese is dated and stamped/branded with their place of origin and the date they were made.
Do we even remotely have anything like that in the US in the beef industry?