ANNEX

SINGLE DOCUMENT

‘PAN GALEGO’/‘PAN GALLEGO’

EU No: PGI-ES-02321 — 22.9.2017

PDO ( ) PGI ( X )

1. Name

‘Pan Galego’/‘Pan Gallego’

2. Member State or Third Country

Spain

3. Description of the agricultural product or foodstuff

3.1. Type of product

Class 2.3. Bread, pastry, cakes, confectionery, biscuits and other baker's wares

3.2. Description of the product to which the name in (1) applies

‘Pan Galego’/‘Pan Gallego’ is a crusty bread (the hardness of the crust varying depending on the format) with a soft and springy crumb dotted with a great many irregular air pockets. It is made by artisan bakeries using common wheat flour (Triticum aestivum L.), some of which is made from native Galician wheat varieties and ecotypes (those commonly known as trigo país (country wheat) or trigo gallego (Galician wheat)) grown in the Autonomous Community itself. The bread is made using a sourdough starter (making up at least 15 % of the total flour weight) and a large amount of water (at least 75 litres per 100 kg of flour), with long rising (minimum three hours) and baking times. Ovens floored with stone or other refractory materials are used for baking.

The bread has the following characteristics:

— Shape:

There are four types of loaf, each with a specific traditional shape:

— The bolo or hogaza is a slightly misshapen round loaf. It may have cracks on the upper part and its width-to-length ratio is approximately 1:1. Other variants are a loaf crowned with a small ‘topknot’ of bread, and a more elongated loaf with a width-to-length ratio of approximately 1:2. The size of these loaves varies depending on the weight, which can be 250 g, 500 g, 1 000 g, 1 500 g or even more.

— The rosca is an irregularly shaped ring of bread with a flattened appearance. The size of the loaves varies depending on the weight, which can be 250 g, 500 g, 1 000 g or even more.

— The bola or torta is round and flat in shape. It has different names depending on the place of origin, and was traditionally baked before the bolo. Loaves can weigh 250 g, 500 g, 1 000 g or even more.

— The barra is a baguette-type loaf between 40 cm and 60 cm long and weighing 300 g.

— Crust:

— Gold to dark brown in colour;

— Medium to thick, generally between 3 mm and 10 mm, except for the barra format, which usually has a crust thickness of between 1 mm and 3 mm;

— Crisp texture, with hardness varying depending on the shape (the bolo and rosca have tougher crusts).

— Crumb:

— Dark white to pale cream in colour;

— Soft and springy texture;

— Randomly dotted with a great many different-sized air pockets.

— Organoleptic characteristics:

This is a highly aromatic bread with a strong wheaty flavour and faint acidic traces. Its solid crust acts as a barrier, helping it to stay hard and crispy on the outside and soft and springy on the inside for many hours. That is why it is often eaten up to 48 hours — and even longer — after baking.

3.3. Feed (for products of animal origin only) and raw materials (for processed products only)

The raw materials used are water, flour, a sourdough starter, organic baker's yeast (optional) and salt.

The bread is traditionally made using a mixture of flours, combining flour made from native wheat ecotypes or varieties grown in Galicia (at least 25 %) with strong flour made from wheat grown outside the region.

Flour from native local wheat varieties must be between 100 W and 200 W, with a P:L ratio of between 0,25 and 0,70 and a protein content higher than 12 %. Strong bread flour from non-Galician wheat must be over 300 W.

Combining these more extensible local flours — with a high protein content and good-quality gluten — with more elastic strong flours results in springy loaves with a softer crumb.

The gluten in most of these local wheats is ideal for bread-making because of the type of glutenins and gliadins that it contains.

3.4. Specific steps in production that must take place in the defined geographical area

All production operations must take place in the defined geographical area.

The production process must follow the traditional method, meaning that most operations are performed by hand. It entails the following steps:

(a) kneading the dough;

(b) leaving the dough mass to rise before breaking it up into loaves;

(c) breaking up the dough;

(d) leaving the loaf-sized balls of dough to rise (optional);

(e) shaping into loaves;

(f) leaving the loaves to rise (optional);

(g) baking;

(h) cooling.

3.5. Specific rules concerning slicing, grating, packaging, etc. of the product to which the registered name refers

The bread is packaged at the production facilities for sale in the form of whole loaves. Loaves of 1 500 g or larger can be sliced at the point of sale, provided that this is done in the presence of the consumer.

There are two reasons for requiring the product to be packaged at the production facilities: to ensure better product hygiene and to facilitate traceability checks — the packaging has a guarantee seal (secondary label) identifying each individual loaf.

3.6. Specific rules concerning labelling of the product to which the registered name refers

Once loaves of bread sold under the protection of the PGI ‘Pan Galego’/‘Pan Gallego’ have been certified as conforming to the product specification, the packaging used for their sale must bear, in addition to the producer's commercial label, a secondary label with an alphanumeric code and associated numbering, used under the supervision of the inspection body. The official logo of the Protected Geographical Indication, which is shown below, must also be displayed on the secondary label:

4. Concise definition of the geographical area

The PGI ‘Pan Galego’/‘Pan Gallego’ production area covers the entire territory of the Autonomous Community of Galicia.

5. Link with the geographical area

The grounds for registering this geographical indication are the link between certain specific characteristics and the environment — with its natural and human factors — and the reputation that the product has built up.

5.1. Reputation

While there are prominent references to the product in Galician food writing, it also features in other aspects of Galician culture, such as more generic literature, popular songs and visual art. For example, Ramón Otero Pedrayo, one of Galician literature's greatest authors, has dedicated a lengthy poem (Xeórxicas do pan or ‘The Bread Georgics’) to the local bread.

For centuries, the bread eaten in most of Galicia was usually rye bread. Following its arrival from the Americas, maize was also used. Wheat bread (‘white bread’) was a rare commodity and generally only accessible to the upper classes, so ordinary people had to content themselves with eating it only on festive occasions.

However, the ‘Pan Gallego’ now recognised throughout the Spanish market is essentially a wheat-based bread. It is only relatively recently that widespread production of this Galician bread — made from a combination of native wheat flours and flours from outside the region — began, starting in the middle of the last century, once Spain's economy had begun to recover after the civil war.

The reputation currently enjoyed by ‘Pan Gallego’ is evidenced by a number of sources from the world of food writing:

— Pan de pueblo (‘The People's Bread’, 2017) by food writer and journalist Iban Yarza — currently one of Spain's leading bread experts — makes several references to the high-quality bread made in Galicia, referring to one particular bakery as ‘one of the temples of Galician bread’.

— Xavier Barriga recommends using ‘Pan Gallego’ for a number of the recipes included in Recetas caseras con pan de ayer (‘Cooking at Home using Yesterday's Bread’, 2011).

— ‘Pan Gallego’ is also mentioned by Angel Gil Hernández in his Libro Blanco del Pan (‘White Paper on Bread’, 2015), stating that ‘the dough must withstand long rise times’.

— The Cook's Guide to Bread by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter (1999) contains a curious description of this bread: ‘the pan gallego often looks like a squashy cottage loaf with a top knot’.

The American personality Rick Steves also recommends trying ‘Pan Gallego’ in Spain and Portugal in 22 Days, qualifying it as ‘excellent’:

‘For your picnic we recommend a cheese called La Tetilla, and the excellent Galician bread.’

We can also find evidence of this reputation on websites and in blogs:

— ‘Pan Gallego’ was named one of the world's best breads in the article ‘La vuelta al mundo en 23 panes’ (‘Around the World in 23 Breads’) published by the online magazine Traveler in 2014.

— In November 2017, El Comidista (‘The Foodie’), one of Spain's most widely read food blogs, published an article entitled ‘¿Por qué el pan suele ser mejor en Galicia que en el resto de España?’ (‘Why do you tend to get better bread in Galicia than in the rest of Spain?’).

‘Pan Gallego’ has also been covered by popular Spanish television programmes: in 2010 España directo (‘Spain Direct’) ran a feature entitled ‘Al rico pan gallego’ (‘Tasty Galician bread’), and in 2011 Gente (‘People’) featured a report entitled ‘Os desvelamos los secretos del pan gallego’ (‘The secrets of Galician bread revealed’).

5.2. Link with the natural environment

(a) Specific characteristics of the geographical area: physical environment and human factors

A journey through Galicia from north to south will take you from an oceanic to a sub-oceanic climate. The local landscape is characterised by low mountains and an extensive river system. Countless mills can be found dotted along these rivers — yet another sign of the local connection to bread. Moreover, the combination of a rainy climate and rock of Palaeozoic origin means that soils in the region are acidic and tend to lack a well-developed profile. In keeping with the types of soils in Galicia, the water is also soft, with a low calcium content.

Although wheat-growing has declined, it is still an important activity in certain areas that have suitable soil and climate conditions. Interest in the crop has picked up again in recent years thanks to a demand for high-quality raw materials from bakers.

As regards the human factor, ‘Pan Gallego’ continues to be made as it was in the olden days: by artisan bakers using traditional know-how passed down from generation to generation. Only the men and women from the defined geographical area have the necessary skill and knowledge for the tasks involved: striking the right balance when combining Galician and non-Galician flours, using the sourdough starter correctly, gauging long resting periods to ensure a slow rise, hand-shaping the loaves into the different typical formats, using old wood-fired stone ovens (or their modern-day equivalents: ovens fired by different fuels or electric ovens with refractory floors), and slowly baking the bread.

(b) Specificity of the product

‘Pan Gallego’ has certain unique characteristics that clearly set it apart from other breads. The first of these is the characteristic shape of some of its more common presentations, such as the bolo — often with a ‘topknot’ — and the rosca. The ‘rustic’ appearance of the crust and its colour (darker than that of industrial mass-produced breads), thickness and hardness are also characteristic features. The crumb is darker in colour than is typically the case with other wheat breads, and is also very soft and springy, dotted with a great many different-sized air pockets. Finally, the bread is highly aromatic, with an intense flavour featuring a certain amount of acidity.

c) Interaction between the natural environment and the product's specific characteristics

The traditional bread-making process, based on the know-how of local men and women, is directly responsible for the product's characteristics.

Processes are slow as a result of using sourdough starters for fermentation, resulting in a soft and springy crumb, lots of air pockets, an intense flavour and a touch of acidity.

The use of flour made from local wheat ecotypes, mixed — with the expert eye of Galicia's bakers — with flours from outside Galicia, is another typical feature of this bread that contributes to its specificity. The qualities conferred on ‘Pan Gallego’ by most of the local wheat ecotypes (native wheats) derive from their high protein content and extensibility, plus the fact that the gluten they contain is ideal for bread-making. However, as these are weak or medium-strong flours, local bakers have traditionally combined them in varying proportions with stronger, more elastic flours, usually imported from Castile. The use of these native flours also affects the colour of the crumb, making it darker than that found in other wheat breads, and, according to the artisan bakers, gives the bread more intense aromas and flavours. On this last point, it has been demonstrated that the bread's aromas derive from certain components of the flour, which is why using these wheats would affect its organoleptic characteristics.

Water is a very important ingredient in bread-making: it hydrates the proteins, allowing gluten to form, and also hydrates the starch granules to ensure their gelatinisation later on at the baking stage. Water hardness is measured by the total concentration of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions. Both rise and baking can be significantly affected by the dissolved substances found in water. Excessively hard waters have a restrictive effect on gluten and slow down the rise, as the minerals make it more difficult for the proteins in the flour to absorb water. The fact that Galicia's waters are generally softer than in much of the rest of the Iberian Peninsula allows greater hydration of the dough, which is a distinguishing feature of Galician bread, made using at least 75 litres of water for every 100 kg of flour.

The use of ovens with refractory floors is another key factor in shaping the characteristics of this bread. The floor mimics the effect of the old wood-fired stone ovens — of which there are still many in Galicia — by distributing heat more evenly and allowing longer baking times. This gives these breads their thick, crispy crust and ‘rustic’ appearance, which clearly sets them apart from other breads, particularly among their customer base. The fact that these breads are baked for much longer than other more industrial breads, thanks to the local bakers' expertise, is therefore another link between the product's characteristics and the place where it is made.

Publication reference of the specification

http://mediorural.xunta.gal/fileadmin/arquivos//alimentacion/produtos_calidade/2018/Pliego_condiciones_IGP_PAN_GALEGO_mayo_2018__C_.pdf