ROME It measures up to 35cm in diameter and has an elevated rim of 1-2cm. It must contain tomato, basil and genuine mozzarella.

Or rather, it should. And - as of Wednesday - if it does not, it cannot be described as a true pizza napoletana.

To the delight of the Italian government, a committee in Brussels awarded the red, green and yellowy-white pizza more commonly known in Italy, and the rest of the world, as a pizza margherita the status of a traditional speciality guaranteed (the English language having no such protected status within the EU).

The agriculture minister in Silvio Berlusconi's government, Luca Zaia, called it the outcome of “a great battle won for Italy, notwithstanding the obstacles erected by certain member states”.

After the launch five years ago of a campaign to give the Neapolitan pizza a protected status, doubts were expressed as to whether a dish subject to so many interpretations and modifications could really qualify.

The Polish representative in Brussels abstained in Wednesday's vote - a slight unlikely to be easily forgiven by Italian gastronomic nationalists.

In 2004, a bill was tabled in the Italian parliament which set out in precise detail the types of flour, yeast, salt and tomatoes used in a true pizza margherita. It also stipulated the dough had to be kneaded by hand and the mozzarella used for the topping had to come from the southern Apennine mountains.The newly given TSG status will not stop big, multinational chains offering ersatz pizza napoletanas. But it will mean restaurants, not just in Naples but throughout the EU, who make their pizzas the traditional way will be able to use a round, blue and yellow logo which coincidentally looks rather like a pizza.

It is not just foreigners who are to blame for counterfeiting. An Italian farmers' association, Coldiretti, said on Wednesday half of Italy's pizzerias were using foreign ingredients, including Chinese tomatoes, Ukrainian flour and Tunisian olive oil.

Historians believe that something very much like pizza dough was used by the Etruscans between 1200BC and 550BC. But, though authorities disagree, the pizza in its modern form seems to have appeared in Naples in the 18th century.

The pizza margherita, though, dates only from 1889. It was invented by a Neapolitan pizzaiolo, Raffaele Esposito, for the visit to Naples of the wife of King Umberto I. Its colours reflect those of the Italian flag.

An online survey by the Societa Dante Alighieri, an association for the promotion of the Italian language, found that “pizza”, which means pie, was the best-known Italian word outside Italy.

It was followed by three other words for food or drink - cappuccino, spaghetti and espresso.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service