It looks like stilton, tastes like stilton, smells like stilton. So why is it called Stichelton?

With its familiar blue veins and natural rind, it looks like stilton and tastes like stilton – albeit tangier and creamier. Yet government regulations mean that Stichelton – made in the UK to the historic recipe using unpasteurised milk – cannot be certified or labelled under that name.

For years Joe Schneider, the only British cheesemaker still producing a raw-milk stilton from his Stichelton Dairy in Nottinghamshire, has been fighting for a change to the rules.

Last week these “cheese wars” moved to the world stage when the Slow Food Foundation – a grassroots movement for “good, clean and fair food” – threw its support behind Schneider by launching a petition to get international public opinion behind a rethink of the regulations.

Traditionally stilton, which dates back to the early 18th century, was made using unpasteurised milk. But protection by a certification trademark (PDO, or Protected Designation of Origin) means it can only be made in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire or Leicestershire – and only to a specific recipe using pasteurised milk.

“We are simply trying to right a wrong,” said Schneider. “It is so disappointing that Defra [the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] will not support us on this. In France, the PDO is used to protect cheeses such as camembert de Normandie, which has won a battle to stop larger producers using anything other than raw milk. Only in the UK would we use the same PDO system intended to protect tradition to protect a modern method such as pasteurisation.”

The petition has already attracted hundreds of signatures, including dozens of small British artisan cheese producers who oppose bureaucratic rules that, they say, stifle creativity in local production.

In a week in which the UK’s largest retailer, Tesco, has been criticised for using “fictitious” farm brands to promote its products, the move is the latest David versus Goliath battle between food producers.

Slow Food said it was backing Schneider because “stilton represents an important piece of culture. It belongs to England, to Europe, to all of us, not to the big industrial food groups. And also because his is a battle for liberty: a producer should be free to choose whether or not to pasteurise their milk and to take responsibility for that choice.”

Only six dairies – under the auspices of the Stilton Cheesemakers’ Association (SCA) – are allowed to call their produce blue stilton [white stilton is also protected by a PDO]. The raw-milk version is only made by Schneider and his partner, Randolph Hodgson, the founder of Neal’s Yard Dairy.

There is a distinct taste difference between the traditionally made stilton and its more modern counterparts. “Stichelton has a rich, dense and creamy paste and a delicately spiced blue, rather than an attack,” according to La Fromagerie, a cheese specialist with shops in Marylebone and Highbury, London. “Throughout the year the flavours can range from the sweet and vegetal to intensely meaty, with aromas like bacon fat. Tasting alongside the Colston Bassett stilton [one of the PDO-approved makers], you recognise that this cheese has its own individual character and is not a stilton, but a true original.”

Vickie Rogerson, a founder of the Leeds-based cheese club and cafe, Homage2Fromage, said: “As a nation, we have become used to eating mass-produced cheese which is on a two-for-one deal at the supermarket. But you’d be surprised just how many British cheeses are now made using raw unpasteurised milk. Most of these are artisan dairies making small batches of cheese in a traditional hand-crafted way, using milk from local herds.”

The sticking point is in the restrictive conditions of the PDO, as unpasteurised milk is used in many other English cheeses which are not protected by PDOs.

Schneider made his first batch of raw milk blue cheese in 2006. He and Hodgson had set out to make raw milk stilton, but the SCA refused their request to allow raw milk stilton to be produced. So Stichelton – a made-up name – was born.

Schneider produces 50 tonnes of Stilcheton a year - a drop in the ocean compared with, for example, Coslton Bassett which produces more than 450 tonnes a year. The terms of the PDO were changed after Colston Bassett switched to pasteurised milk after a contamination outbreak in 1988.

In 2012, Hodgson and Schneider asked Defra to recommend to the EU that the PDO be changed to allow stilton to be made of raw milk, but that and further bids – including at the end of last year – failed.

The Food Standards Agency has shown a close interest – not without controversy – in consumption of raw milk on public health grounds.

Defra said: “Protected status enables our best-loved food to thrive in the international and domestic marketplace, protecting products from imitation across the EU, helping consumers recognise products as being traditional and authentic and driving sales.

“While we want more British delicacies to enjoy this prestigious status, all decisions regarding changes to the protected food status must meet European legislation to guarantee their authenticity.”