EN Official Journal of the European Union C 95/34

Publication of an application for registration pursuant to Article 8(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 509/2006 on agricultural products and foodstuffs as traditional specialities guaranteed

2010/C 95/09

This publication confers the right to object to the application pursuant to Article 9 of Council Regulation (EC) No 509/2006 (1). Statements of objection must reach the Commission within six months from the date of this publication.

APPLICATION FOR REGISTRATION OF A TSG

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 509/2006

‘SPIŠSKÉ PÁRKY’

EC No: SK-TSG-0007-0051-18.01.2007

1. Name and address of the applicant group:

Name: Slovenský zväz spracovateľov mäsa Address: Kukučínova 22 831 03 Bratislava SLOVENSKO/SLOVAKIA Tel. +421 255565162 Fax +421 255565162 E-mail: slovmaso@slovmaso.sk

Name: Český svaz zpracovatelů masa Address: Libušská 319 142 00 Praha 4 – Písnice ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA Tel. +420 244092404 Fax +420 244092405 E-mail: reditel@cszm.cz

2. Member State or third country:

Slovak Republic

Czech Republic

3. Product specification:

3.1. Name(s) to be registered:

‘Spišské párky’ (in Slovak and in Czech)

3.2. Whether the name:

is specific in itself  expresses the specific character of the agricultural product or foodstuff

The name ‘Spišské párky’ is specific in itself because it is well-established and well-known in both Slovakia and the Czech Republic, has a long tradition and a good reputation and relates to ‘párky’ of a particular type.

3.3. Is reservation of the name sought under Article 13(2) of Regulation (EC) No 509/2006?

Registration with name reservation  Registration without name reservation

3.4. Type of product:

Class 1.2. Meat products (cooked, salted, smoked, etc.)

3.5. Description of the agricultural product or foodstuff to which the name under point 3.1 applies:

‘Spišské párky’ are contained in sheep-intestine casings of up to 24 mm in diameter and are separated by twisting. The individual sausages weigh about 50 g. They are typically pinkish-red in colour, owing to the paprika seasoning, and have a slightly piquant taste.

Physical properties

A continuous string, several metres long, separated by twisting.

Chemical properties

fat content: max. 24 % ± 4 %,

salt content: max. 2 % ± 0,4 %,

net muscle protein content at least 10 % by weight.

Organoleptic properties

— external appearance and colour: product in a continuous length contained in a sheep-intestine casing of a diameter up to 24 mm, separated by twisting the intestine to form individual links, surface smooth or slightly wrinkled, orange-brown in colour, glossy to matt,

— appearance and colour of cut surface: pinkish red when cut, owing to paprika, small collagen particles permitted,

— odour and taste: pleasant freshly-smoked aroma, slightly hot, appropriately salty, succulent to the bite when heated up,

— consistency: soft to compact.

3.6. Description of the production method of the agricultural product or foodstuff to which the name under 3.1 applies:

The ingredients used to produce ‘Spišské párky’ are fresh beef with a fat content of up to 10 %, fresh pork with a fat content of up to 10 %, fresh pork with a fat content of up to 50 %, pork rind, potable water, nitrite salting mix, ground sweet paprika (100 ASTA), ground hot paprika, polyphosphates E 450 and E 451 (3 g/kg, expressed as P2O5), ascorbic acid E 300 (0,5 g/kg), and sheep-intestine casings.

100 kg of ‘Spišské párky’ as finished product contains:

— beef with a fat content of up to 10 % 21,2 kg — pork with a fat content of up to 10 % 21,0 kg — pork with a fat content of up to 50 % 38,0 kg — pork rind 12,0 kg — potable water 21,0 kg — nitrite salting mix (to salt the meat) 2,1 kg — ground sweet paprika (100 ASTA) 0,62 kg — ground hot paprika 0,62 kg — polyphosphates (E 450 and E 451) 0,30 kg — ascorbic acid (E 300) 0,05 kg — casing — sheep intestines.

Technical procedure

The beef and pork are first pre-cut and then finely minced in a mincer or chopped up finely in a cutting machine. The pork rind is added and the ingredients are worked into a smooth homogeneous mass. A mixture of ground sweet paprika and ground hot paprika and nitrite salting mix, including the additives (polyphosphates E 450 and E 451 and ascorbic acid E 300), is then added. This mixture is fed into sheep intestines of up to 24 mm in diameter. The individual sausages are separated by twisting so that each link weighs about 50 g. The finished products are hung, in a continuous string, on sticks which are placed in a smoke-room, where the products are dried and smoked. They are smoked in hot smoke at up to 68 °C for no longer than 45 minutes. The smoked products are then cooked at a temperature of 71-76 °C until the middle of the product reaches a temperature of 70 °C. This temperature must be maintained in the middle of the product for at least 10 minutes. After cooking, the products are sprinkled with cold water and left to cool slowly until the temperature in the middle is no more than + 4 °C.

3.7. Specificity of the agricultural product or foodstuff:

The specific character of ‘Spišské párky’ derives from:

— the composition and proportions of the ingredients and seasonings used,

— the smoothness of the homogeneous mass,

— the use of sheep-intestine casings,

— their physical and chemical and organoleptic properties.

Composition and proportions of the ingredients and seasonings used and smoothness of the homogeneous mass

The specific character of ‘Spišské párky’ is imparted by the ingredients used according to a long-established recipe, namely: beef and pork, together with pork rind, worked into a smooth homogeneous mass, the smoothness of which differs clearly from that of other sausages. The use of a mixture of ground sweet and ground hot red paprika, as indicated in the recipe, is also a specific feature.

Use of sheep-intestine casings

Another specific feature of ‘Spišské párky’ is that sheep-intestine casings are used, ensuring that they are clearly distinguishable to the eye from other sausages.

Physico-chemical and organoleptic properties

Adherence to all the stages of production included in the specification ensures that the product has a unique odour and taste.

Cooking prior to consumption is a specific feature. The water in which the product is cooked must not be allowed to boil, as the natural casing could burst. If the sheep intestine were to burst, the product could lose its characteristic succulence. Characteristic features of ‘Spišské párky’ after cooking are their succulence and the delicately piquant taste of paprika. The precisely defined proportions of the ingredients used in their production mean that ‘Spišské párky’ make a distinctive cracking noise when broken or bitten, and this clearly distinguishes them from other types of sausage.

3.8. Traditional character of the agricultural product or foodstuff:

The production of ‘Spišské párky’ goes back more than a century in Slovakia. It was first recorded when a local butcher in Spišské Podhradie, Štefan Varsányi, took advantage of the frequent visits of the Hungarian nobility to the grand fairs held by Spiš Castle. He began selling ‘Spišské párky’ at those fairs as a special attraction. His recipe, based on a delicate mix of seasonings with sweet and hot paprika, was clearly very successful, for after a while he was selling them in Hungary and Poland as well.

Exports of ‘Spišské párky’ were facilitated by, among other things, the building of the Košice-Bohumín railway and its branch line to Spišské Vlachy and Spišské Podhradie. Early in the morning, sausages were packed in special boxes and put onto the first morning train from Spišské Podhradie, and at noon they were ready to be savoured by the gourmets of Budapest (František Žifčák – Kronika mesta Spišské Podhradie slovom i obrazom, Mesto Spišské Podhradie, 1988).

Indeed, the well-known Slovak writer Emo Bohúň also commented from experience: ‘Spišské párky were troublesome and tricky blighters and often misbehaved. They couldn’t be eaten with a knife and fork, or be broken open like other, similar kinds of sausage [viršle]. You had to take them between your fingers, stuff them into your mouth, get your lips right round them and only then bite. They held lots of paprika-infused juices within their swollen skins, and if we had broken or cut them open or stuck a fork into them, those red juices would have shot a hundred metres into the air in all directions. They could have come in quite useful for firemen, instead of their hoses or fire extinguishers’ (Žáry, Štefan: Zlatoústi rozprávači. Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ, 1984).

Apart from Štefan Varsányi, producers of ‘Spišské párky’ up to 1938 included Grieger and Blaško in Spišské Podhradie, Slavkovský in Spišské Vlachy, and Schretter, Schmiedt, Patrilla and Lešňák in Levoča. In Spišské Podhradie in the 1940s, ‘pig markets’ of some renown were held on Thursdays, when it was the custom, if buying and selling had been good, for traders and buyers to gather round tables in taverns, which were owned by butchers who made smoked meats, and order ‘viršle’, as ‘Spišské párky’ were known in those days. They were sold at every railway station. As soon as a train stopped, someone would cry out at the top of their voice, ‘Spišské pááááááááááááárky, viršle, viršličky…!’ (‘Viršle, viršličky, spišské …’, SME, daily newspaper, Bratislava: Petit Press, 7 September 1996, p. 7).

‘Spišské párky’ have a good name not only in the Spiš region, Slovakia as a whole and the Czech Republic, but also in other countries (‘Viršle, viršličky, spišské …’ , SME, daily newspaper, Bratislava: Petit Press, 7 September 1996, p. 7). Among those who regularly enjoyed them were President T.G. Masaryk and Count Albín Csáky, who was speaker of the upper house of the Hungarian Parliament and Minister for Education and Culture. This influential man made sure that these sausages were served at Hungarian cabinet meetings (http://www.internet.sk/mediakurier/cei/44.htm). ‘Spišské párky’ were, and are still, also available in Czech pubs (http://www.inzine.sk/article.asp?art=4214 — Pišťanek Peter: ‘Ako som kupoval zámok. Zámockým pánom rýchlo ľahko a rýchlo’, 26 October 2000). They were an integral part of Labour Day celebrations (‘Uprš aný Prvý máj na košickom sídlisku železiarov’, SME, daily newspaper, Bratislava: Petit Press, 2 May 1997, p. 1) and various fairs such as the Folk Crafts Fair (Trh ľudových remesiel) in Spišská Nová Ves, at which, apart from ‘Spišské párky’, a virtually forgotten, but ingenious receptacle for serving them was presented. This receptacle is made of earthenware and has a double bottom for boiling water so that the sausages can be kept hot for longer (‘Česť spišských remeselníkov zachraňovali Košičania na stoloch’, SME, daily newspaper, Bratislava: Petit Press 23 September 1997, p. 1).

After the Second World War, a standard was adopted throughout the Czechoslovak Republic, in the context of standardisation and maintenance of traditional quality, establishing the composition of the ingredients and defining the production method (Quality standard TP of 8 September 1954, Ministry of the Food Industry).

It is clear from historical records that the product recipe gradually changed somewhat, with the addition of a proportion of beef to the recipe; this did not change the nature or use of the product — on the contrary, this combination of ingredients improved its flavour (ÚNK 57 7260, 1964).

The product's defining characteristic features are its succulence after being cooked and the mildly piquant taste that the paprika imparts. This recipe is still used by producers of ‘Spišské párky’ today (CSN 57 71 34, dating from 1977, and later STN 57 71 34).

‘Spišské párky’ are traditionally contained in casings of natural sheep intestine (butcher Štefan Varsányi, quality standard TP of 8 September 1954, Ministry of the Food Industry), which are very brittle, unlike other types of intestines. They typically enjoy a good reputation not only in Slovakia and the Czech Republic but also in other countries.

3.9. Minimum requirements and procedures to check the specific character:

Mandatory checks include the following:

— adherence to the specified proportions of beef, pork and pork rind used as ingredients; for the production of ‘Spišské párky’ it is necessary to monitor the preparation of the beef and pork, which involves the selection of the ingredients and the quantities thereof according to the percentage of fat,

— checks on the addition of the pork rind,

— checks on the smoothness of the homogeneous mass; the homogeneity and smoothness of the mass is determined by sight and touch,

— adherence to the specified proportions of sweet and hot ground red paprika, having a colour intensity of 100 ASTA; the addition of the quantity of the mixture of ground sweet paprika (100 ASTA) and ground hot paprika, the nitrite mix, including the additives (polyphosphates E 450 and E 451 and ascorbic acid E 300) and water, is checked,

— checks on the use of sheep intestines, which are carried out on the basis of the supplier’s delivery note,

— checks on the organoleptic properties of the finished product (external appearance and colour, appearance and colour of surface when cut, texture, odour and taste); these checks are carried out visually and by means of sensory analysis at the end of the production process to verify compliance with the characteristics specified in point 3.5 of the specification,

— checks on the physical and chemical properties of the finished product: maximum diameter of the sheep-intestine and weight of one link of sausage; the values must correspond to those specified under point 3.5 in the specification,

Checks by the authority or body verifying compliance with the product specification are performed once a year.

4. Authorities or bodies verifying compliance with the product specification:

4.1. Name and address:

Authorities or bodies verifying compliance with the product specification in the Slovak Republic:

Name: BEL/NOVAMANN International, s r.o. Address: Továrenská 14 815 71 Bratislava PO BOX 11 820 04 Bratislava 24 SLOVENSKO/SLOVAKIA Tel. +421 250213376 E-mail: tomas.ducho@ba.bel.sk

 Public Private

Name: Štátna veterinárna a potravinová správa SR Address: Botanická 17 842 13 Bratislava SLOVENSKO/SLOVAKIA Tel. +421 260257427 E-mail: buchlerova@svssr.sk

Public  Private

Authorities or bodies verifying compliance with the product specification in the Czech Republic:

Name: Státní zemědělská a potravinářská inspekce Address: Kvetná 15 603 00 Brno ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA Tel. +420 543540111 E-mail: sekret.oklc@szpi.gov.cz

Public  Private

Name: Státní veterinární správa ČR Address: Slezská 7 120 00 Praha 2 ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA Tel. +420 227010137 E-mail: hygi@svscr.cz

Public  Private

4.2. Specific tasks of the authority or body:

— Body or entity verifying compliance with the product specification in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

— The inspection bodies specified are responsible for checking the specification in its entirety.

(1) OJ L 93, 31.3.2006, p. 12.