Caretaker agriculture minister Femke Wiersma has rejected a request from an industrial baker to change one of the conditions under which a Limburgse vlaai can be called a Limburgse vlaai, Belgian paper Het Belang van Limburg reported.

The Limburgse vlaai, or pie, can only be called that if it is sold within 48 hours of baking, one of the conditions of its recently accorded status as a protected regional product.

This condition is too strict, the baker, who sells the pies to supermarkets across the country, claimed. The window of 48 hours is too short and should be six days, he said, creating a level playing field between big and small bakers.

Wiersma’s rejection of the request was welcomed by Belgian minister of economic affairs Jo Brouns who defended the vlaai on behalf of the bakers in Belgian Limburg.

“If a Dutch industrial baker wants to sell six-day-old vlaaien he must do so but certainly not under the name of Limburgse vlaai,” he said.

The vlaai joined eight Dutch cheeses, two species of potato, a type of grape, a type of sugar, white asparagus, herring and a syrup on the protected list in January this year.