NATCHEZ — Natchez is the biscuit capital of the world.

On behalf of Mayor Jake Middleton, Alderman Bob Pollard announced to the world that the designation belongs to the city.

“I am proud to claim the title,” Pollard said.

The process for getting the city the title took approximately three years of work, said Regina Charboneau, who championed the cause.

“Basically, in doing the research, I found that no one has claimed the title,” Charboneau said.

The reason to make sure no one else has claimed the title, which Charboneau did through research in the trademark office, is to avoid a biscuit brawl.

“For example, there was a big dispute between Oscala County, Fla., and Lexington, Ky., about who was the horse capital of the world,” Charboneau said.

There is a city in the Netherlands that claims the title as biscuit capital of the world, but that shouldn’t be the source of any future trans-Atlantic tension.

“They mean ‘cookie’ when they say biscuit, not the kind of biscuits we have here,” Charboneau said.

Charboneau cited the Carriage House’s famous biscuits, Biscuits and Blues and even historic records of Natchez biscuits as reasons why the city should have the title.

“It’s just one more thing for people to know about the city,” she said.

Now that Natchez is the proclaimed biscuit capital of the world, in January 2010 Charboneau said the city will host a national biscuit cook-off in which the winners of state fairs from around the country will come to compete in Natchez.

The proclamation was made at the fourth annual Martha White biscuit cook-off, part of the Natchez Food and Wine Festival.

The winner of that cook-off was Janelle Wheelis, who was followed by Susan Wheeler in second place and Sherry Brooks in third.

The winner of the most interesting biscuit award went to Lily Magruder, of St. Francisville.

“We put some chocolate chips and M&Ms in a biscuit and cooked it in a fryer,” Magruder said.

The Food and Wine Festival will conclude today with a Champagne Jazz Brunch at the Carriage House.