Wensleydale Dairy Products has launched a legal battle to prevent rivals from making the Yorkshire cheese anywhere else.

The only company which makes Wensleydale Cheese in Wensleydale wants to prevent manufacturers outside the dale producing the cheese.

If the Hawes-based creamery is successful in its bid, rival cheesemakers will not be allowed to call their products Real Yorkshire Wensleydale.

The firm said the move would safeguard the livelihoods of the creamery's 190 workers and 36 farms that supply it, as well as the £8m that Wensleydale cheese contributes to the local economy.

If the "protected designation of origin" status is approved, Wensleydale cheese would join Newcastle Brown Ale, Champagne and Parma Ham as protected products.

The status is used to promote and protect food products in the European Union and is used to describe food which is produced, processed and prepared in a certain geographical area. If the Department of Food and Rural Affairs approves Wensleydale's bid, the application will be submitted to Brussels.

Managing director David Hartley said: "The Wensleydale Creamery has been at the heart of the Yorkshire dale's economy for many years.

"Over the past 14 years the staff and management at the creamery have created a thriving business based on the precious commodity of Real Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese."

Wensleydale Creamery has been hand-making cheese for more than 100 years using traditional recipes.

Mr Hartley added: "For the creamery it will mean that we can plan the future of our business with the security of knowing that producers from outside the region cannot pass off Wensleydale to consumers.

"This will help protect the regional heritage of the cheese which directly impacts on the livelihoods of Wensleydale farmers and families."

Wensleydale cheese has been made in the dale since 1150, when Cistercian monks founded a monastery four miles from Hawes. Their cheesemaking skills were passed on to local people and large-scale production began in the town in 1897.

In 1992 the creamery was closed with the loss of 59 jobs and production of Wensleydale cheese moved out of its home territory to Lancashire.

Six months later a management buyout took place, led by local businessman John Gibson and a management team and the company bought a second plant, the Fountains Dairy at Kirby Malzeard, near Ripon, in 2000.

* North Yorkshire cheese maker Judy Bell, who runs the Shepherd's Purse dairy near Thirsk, fell foul of the EU regulations when she labelled one of her products Yorkshire feta. The EU ruled that only cheese from Greece could be described as such.