Portland White. Carrara. Calacatta. Statuario. Those are the names Granite Transformations has chosen for its new range of engineered stone surfaces.

Granite Transformations offers to add a 6.5mm veneer to existing worktops, providing a transformation that can often be achieved in a day. Its products are man made. The newly launched Marble Collection offers, says Granite Transformations, "the look and elegance of a natural marble stone but with all the performance characteristic of a Granite Transformations engineered stone surface". It says its new range of engineered stones are non-porous, and heat, scratch, stain and impact resistant.

Granite Transformations says of the four initial designs in its Marble Collection: "Carrara, featuring a traditional marble look of white and blue-grey soft veins; Calacatta, with its understated gold veining; Portland White, a natural vintage cement look; Statuario, a refined, yet impressive grey veined marble on a white background."

As well as being used to cover kitchen worktops and splashbacks, Granite Transformations' thin slabs are also used in bathrooms and utility rooms, and as floor and wall coverings.

Portland limestone producer Albion is an advocate for extending the geographical protection (known as geographical identification, or GI) of products to natural stones such as Portlabnd limestone so the name cannot be used for stones other than those that come from the Dorset island and cannot be used for man-made products.

Geographical protection is currently given by the European Union to products such a Champagne and Melton Mowbray pork pies. It makes it illegal throughout the EU for producers outside the region or making different products to use the name. To date, the protection is given to food and drink products only, but last year the EU started consultations to consider extending the protection to other product areas. Stone Federation and other organisations in the UK and across Europe, as well as individual producers, have submitted their views in support of the move (read more about that move here...).

Of course, Portland limestone is one of the earliest examples of a stone name being taken for a man-made product, when it was given to the cement now known as Ordinary Portland Cement in the 19^th century. It was called 'Portland' cement because it was considered to look like the natural stone.