An abbreviation of Appellation d'Origine Controllee or translated as "controlled designation of origin", AOC is the French government's regulation to classify the geographical origins of its honoured agricultural produce including wine, cheese and olive oils.
Similar to the Italy's DOC and Spain's DO, food labelled with AOC must comply with the European Union's rigorous standards regarding the name and description of the production, definition of the geographic area, methods of preparation, factors relating to the environment and details of how the product is defined.
