EN Official Journal of the European Union C 285/18

Publication of an application pursuant to Article 6(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs

2012/C 285/10

This publication confers the right to object to the application pursuant to Article 7 of Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 (1). Statements of objection must reach the Commission within six months of the date of this publication.

SINGLE DOCUMENT

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 510/2006

‘SAUCISSE DE MONTBÉLIARD’

EC No: FR-PGI-0005-0869-14.03.2011

PGI ( X ) PDO ( )

1. Name:

‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’

2. Member State or Third Country:

France

3. Description of the agricultural product or foodstuff:

3.1. Type of product:

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

3.2. Description of product to which the name in point 1 applies:

‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ has various characteristics:

Exterior

‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ is a slightly curved sausage with a cylindrical form and a diameter of at least 25 mm (diameter of the gut casing at the time of filling) made from pork. ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ is filled into a pork casing which is exclusively natural. This colourless gut casing is closed by twisting.

When cooked, each slice of ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ has a coarsely minced yet uniform texture and is firm in appearance.

Colour and consistency

Smoking gives the sausages a light amber colour, somewhere between brown and golden. Nevertheless, the colour is not uniform throughout the product. ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ is prepared from a mixture of lean pork and hard pork fat, which is coarsely minced and kneaded.

The transparency of the casings allows the lean pork to appear as dark patches and the fat as light patches.

‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ has a firm consistency to the touch.

Taste, flavour and texture

The smoked flavour is one of the major characteristics of ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ and is obtained by using the wood and sawdust of resinous trees. In the raw product, this flavour is distinct. However, when cooked and in the mouth, the smoked flavour is balanced and lasting without being sharp or bitter. ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ is also characterised by its meat that is lightly seasoned by spices and herbs, which typically include cumin and pepper.

Cooked ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ has a moist and tender texture. In the mouth, the product must be neither tough nor rubbery, but firm and juicy.

The combination of smoking and herbs imparts a unique taste to ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’.

Criteria Target values Moisture content with fat removed < or = 75 % Fat for a moisture content of 75 % < or = 30 % Collagen/protein up to 18 % Sugar for a moisture content of 75 % equal to or less than 1 %

The sausages may be sold raw, cooked or frozen.

For reasons of food safety, sausages must be packaged when passed on to the consumer.

If sausages subsequently undergo a second processing, they can be presented in sliced form.

3.3. Raw materials (for processed products only):

Quality criteria for selecting meat

Breeding:

The animals selected for fattening are females and castrated males. Uncastrated males, including young males that have not yet reached sexual maturity, males castrated of a single testicle, males with cryptorchidism, hermaphrodites and cull sows are not accepted.

For meat raw materials: ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ PGI is obtained from pigmeat from breeds entered in the herd books or herd breeding records kept by the Pork Selection Bodies approved by the French Ministry of Agriculture. Animals of the same breeds bred under selection or cross-breeding schemes whose aims are compatible with those of the French herd book are also eligible.

The proportion of fattening pigs sensitive to halothane must be less than 3 % and all must be non-carriers of the RN- allele.

In order to establish healthy rearing conditions and limit the need for additives and treatment, a procedure for cleaning, disinfecting and drying has been put in place between each batch at all stages of fattening pig production.

The use of tranquillising medicaments is prohibited in the 48 hours prior to the animal’s departure from the farm and during transport.

At the time of loading, the animal has been fasted for at least 12 hours.

Slaughter and cutting:

There is a waiting time of at least two hours prior to slaughter. The pigs are rinsed down when they arrive at the slaughterhouse and 30 minutes prior to anaesthesia.

When the ambient external temperature is lower than + 10 °C, mist propagation at arrival may be omitted.

The minimum warm weight for pig carcases is 75 kg.

Blemishes are limited to 5 % for all carcases in a client batch. The following are considered as blemishes:

— hair removal blemishes,

— rind blemishes,

— burst blood vessels,

— bruising,

— fractures,

— presence of foreign matter (grease stain, traces of faeces, offal fragments and any other undesirable foreign substance).

The pH is an indicator of the technological quality of the carcases and, therefore, has to be controlled. Control methods involving sampling have to be specified and documented at slaughterhouse level.

The ultimate pH (taken at least 18 hours after slaughter) falls within the range 5,50 ≤ pH < 6,20. The measurement is taken 5 cm above the sirloin end at a depth of 2-3 cm.

The cuts that may be used in the mixture are as follows (no other cuts are permitted):

— ham,

— shoulder,

— brisket,

— backfat,

— loin,

— trimmings (if used, the throat must be prepared and not have any glands or red blotches).

The use of frozen raw materials (pork fat or lean meat) is permitted and limited to 30 % of the mixture.

Lean pork meat (including trimmings) is frozen within six days of the date of slaughter. Hard pork fat (pure cover fat, backfat) is frozen within 72 hours of the date of slaughter.

The freezing temperature must be reached in the centre of the product within 48 hours.

These frozen raw materials must be salted within 24 hours of thawing. Sausages from a mixture containing raw materials that had been frozen must be smoked within 72 hours of the meat being salted.

Cuts that can be used for making ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ may not be frozen for longer than 10 months for lean meat (including trimmings) or 4 months for hard pork fat (backfat, pure cover fat).

Cuts with one or more of the following defects are non-compliant:

— hair removal blemishes,

— rind blemishes,

— burst blood vessels,

— bruising,

— fractures,

— presence of foreign matter (grease stain, traces of faeces, offal fragments and any other undesirable foreign substance),

— abscesses.

Loin meat with colour score 1 or 2 (based on the Japanese colour scale or equivalent) and blade shoulder meat with colour score 6 is eliminated.

Meat with soft and oily fat is eliminated.

3.4. Feed (for products of animal origin only):

The diet of the fattening pigs to be used to make ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ contains whey which has been obtained by precipitation of milk casein during the production of cheese. It has neither been desugared nor deproteinated, but may be skimmed and/or dehydrated.

The proportion of whey is between 15 % and 35 % of the dry matter in the total diet given during the fattening period.

The complementary feedingstuff for whey contains at least 50 % grains and miller’s offals.

The fattening diet must contain less than 1,7 % linoleic acid in proportion to the dry matter.

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

The production of ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’, from the preparation of the mixture through to smoking, must take place within the geographical area.

3.6. Specific rules concerning slicing, grating, packaging, etc.:

Not applicable.

3.7. Specific rules on labelling:

Labelling of the product must contain the following information:

— the name of the protected geographical indication: ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’,

— the European Union’s PGI logo as from the registration at the level of the EU.

If the ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ has not been exclusively smoked in a ‘thué’ smokehouse, then visual or written communications relating to the product may not make reference to this type of smokehouse.

4. Concise definition of the geographical area:

The geographical area of production (from the preparation of the mixture through to the smoking) for ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ is made up of all four departments of the Franche-Comté region (i.e. Doubs, Jura, Haute-Saône and Territoire de Belfort).

This geographical area is the area of traditional expertise in making and smoking ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’. It is where the ‘thués’ and traditional smokehouses are situated, which bear testament to the expertise in the production of ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’. These traditional smokehouses and ‘thués’ are to be found throughout the entire Franche-Comté region.

5. Link with the geographical area:

5.1. Specificity of the geographical area:

Highly wooded

As the woods make up 44 % of the territory in the Franche-Comté region, they are an important feature in the local landscape and the lives of residents. These woods are characterised by their many resinous tree species, particularly in the mountainous zone, with the fir as the prime example.

Factors that have contributed to the development of this business

As the activity to have played a major role in shaping the landscape, agriculture in the Franche-Comté region is geared mainly towards cattle farming, with a particular focus on dairy production. The region has a very well-developed cheesemaking industry with protected designation of origin status (particularly the denominations ‘Mont d’Or’, ‘Comté’, ‘Morbier et Bleu de Gex’). There is a large number of ‘fruitières’ (as the cheese dairies are known locally) scattered throughout the area.

These dairies produce whey, a choice raw material for animal feed, in particular for pigs. It is therefore the development of the cheese dairies (which, due to their small size, make use of whey on site without being transported or chilled) that has enabled whey-based pig rearing to develop in the Franche-Comté region.

The link between cheese production and pig production is therefore a direct and traditional one and, in contrast to nearly all other regions, this tradition has survived here.

From the 20th century onwards, pork production in Franche-Comté developed and specialised due to the growing volume of milk and hence whey. Pork products, which, until that time, were for family consumption only, were first sold through local butchers and pork butchers and later on the regional market.

Pig production in this area encouraged the development of artisanal and industrial pig processors by providing these operators with a raw material that had not been diverted to national or international markets.

A dense network of producers and operators closely linked to Franche-Comté

As discussed above, because the local production of pork is limited in size compared with the main European production areas, it is mainly oriented towards local markets.

That explains in particular the continued existence of a relatively dense network of small and medium-size slaughterhouses (10 are still active today) and cutters (more than 10 are still active) in the geographical area, supplying a network of more than 30 local processors. The fact that there are still so many testifies to the dynamism of the area.

The geographical and climatic conditions have allowed specific smoking practices to develop.

Generally speaking, smoked products are traditionally products from eastern France and Europe. Historically, smoking was used to dry and thus preserve products, and was particularly prevalent in colder, mountainous areas where the process of smoking could be tied in with the need to heat dwellings. This gave rise to the concept of the ‘thué’ in Franche-Comté. A ‘thué’ was the farm’s heating centre and smokehouse, used to temporarily store pork in order to dry, smoke and thus preserve it.

Nowadays, ‘thués’ form an integral part of curing houses, in addition to those that are still in operation in older farms. These are not rooms that can be lived in as the smoke is produced by burning sawdust of resinous trees on the floor or on a lower storey. The products are always smoked in a traditional way, without propulsion of smoke or mechanical ventilation.

The practice, which was initially developed in Haut-Doubs, is the origin of the expertise in smoking that then spread throughout the entire Franche-Comté region with the appearance of smoking structures based on the principles of the ‘thué’.

The geographical area for the PGI ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ is therefore based on the map showing the area where ‘thués’ and traditional smokehouses are to be found.

5.2. Specificity of the product:

Special characteristics

Specific characteristics linked to the process are as follows:

— filling into a colourless pork casing (natural gut) which has a diameter of at least 25 mm and is closed by twisting. This gut lends the sausage its slightly curved appearance,

— smoking over wood from resinous trees for at least 6 hours in a conventional smokehouse, 9 hours in a combination of a traditional smokehouse and a conventional smokehouse and 12 hours in a traditional smokehouse,

— course mincing with a grain of at least 6 mm,

— a light amber colour due to the smoking,

— a slightly seasoned taste thanks to cumin or caraway and pepper as well as other spices included in the mixture, if any.

A selection of the raw materials imparting the special characteristics to the product

The pigs are fed on a whey diet with a restricted linoleic acid content (1,7 % of their diet), and so it is possible to select fat that is only slightly unsaturated. This characteristic gives fat grains which are distinctly separate in the mixture and have a pleasing white colour. It also makes ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ more resistant to heat during smoking or cooking, and prevents the fat from melting.

Unsaturated fat is also more adhesive and limiting levels of it allows the product to capture the smoke better. When destructured fats are used, the smoke aromas are captured on the periphery of the casing and form an impermeable film that prevents the smoke from penetrating deep into the sausage.

Thanks to the use of whey feed, combined with selective genetic criteria, the meat is uniformly pink in colour. In conjunction with the firm, white fats, this helps keep the special grain of ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ very visible.

A firmly established reputation

The production and consumption of pork meats and smoked meats, including ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’, have been historically documented in Franche-Comté since ancient times.

The origin of the product goes back to the farming traditions in Franche-Comté. It appears to have been known for a very long time: certain ethnologists say that the Séquanes and the Eduens, taught by the Mandubiens (first century B.C.), whose capital was ‘Epomanduodorum’ (Mandeure near Montbéliard) were already familiar with the sausage.

As far back as the first century A.D., the Mandubiens already transported fir wood and cured meats in their flat-hull vessels as far as the shores of the Mediterranean: exports of ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ had begun. In the 14th century, the ‘Montbéliard’ sausage was still called ‘andouille’ (‘andoueille’ in the local dialect) or andouillette: farmers only chose lean meat and pork fat seasoned with a lot of garlic and cumin (a regional plant), which were hung to dry for a long time in chimneys in which Geneva and vine shoots were burnt. The ‘Montbéliard’ differs from other sausages in that it contains nothing but pork.

The sausage was introduced in Paris in the 18th century by Georges Cuvier, a French scientist originally from Montbéliard.

It made its first appearance on French fairs and exhibitions in 1936.

Today, along with the Morteau sausage, it represents the main outlet for the vast majority of pig farms, slaughterhouses and cutting businesses.

‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ is known among the general public, restaurateurs and consumers: a public awareness survey conducted in 2008 showed that it was known to nearly 60 % of consumers. People immediately recognise it as a symbol of Franche-Comté cuisine, alongside the various cheeses and wines of the region.

5.3. Causal link between the geographical area and the quality or characteristics of the product (for PDO) or a specific quality, the reputation or other characteristic of the product (for PGI):

The smoking of ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ is a controlled process. The slow smoking, which means that smoke has to be produced on a constant basis, is an important factor. This expertise, which centres on controlling the slow combustion without a flame of sawdust and wood according to various parameters, is passed on within regional businesses. The practice itself and human skills associated with it developed as a response to local circumstances.

Resinous trees grow in great numbers in the Franche-Comté forest, particularly in the mountainous area. Local meat curers, very logically, used the types of wood at their disposal. The practice of using resinous wood and the practice of controlled smoking, which was originally developed in the mountainous areas, spread throughout the entire Franche-Comté region. This abundance of resinous trees meant that the smoking of ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard‧ developed solely on the basis of resinous woods — in contrast to other types of smoked sausage in France or Europe which are smoked using wood from deciduous trees.

This smoking by means of resinous wood is an extremely specific characteristic of ‘Saucisse de Montbéliard’ giving it its amber colour and a smoked taste closely linked to the area in which it is produced.

Furthermore, in conjunction with the smoking practice, the practices of coarse mincing, closing by twisting and filling the sausages into pork gut casing are all traditional local practices specific to the Franche-Comté region. The Franche-Comté region is an area that corresponds to a zone of expertise.

In conclusion, this strong territorial link and the continued existence in the geographical area of a dense network of interdependent operators who are involved in the creation of the product, from rearing to processing, contribute greatly to the reputation that the product enjoys today.

Reference to publication of the specification:

(Article 5(7) of Regulation (EC) No 510/2006)

https://www.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/CDCIGPSaucisseDeMontbeliardV2.pdf

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