EN Official Journal of the European Union C 90/9

Publication of an application pursuant to Article 50(2)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs

(2017/C 90/10)

This publication confers the right to oppose the application pursuant to Article 51 of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (1).

SINGLE DOCUMENT

‘KINTOA’

EU No: PDO-FR-02165 — 31.8.2016

PDO ( X ) PGI ( )

1. Name(s)

‘Kintoa’

2. Member State or Third Country

France

3. Description of the agricultural product or foodstuff

3.1. Type of product

Class 1.1. Fresh meat (and offal)

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

‘Kintoa’ pork comes from Basque Black Pied breed pigs (castrated males and females that have never been suckled). The pigs are slaughtered at a minimum age of 12 months and a maximum age of 24 months. The cold carcass weight of the slaughtered pig must be at least 100 kg. The thickness of the back fat without the skin between the 4th and the 5th vertebra must be equal to or greater than 25 mm.

The meat may be sold in carcasses, half-carcasses and cuts. Only fresh meat that has undergone no processing other than cutting can qualify for the designation. Frozen or deep-frozen meat is not permitted.

‘Kintoa’ pork has the following characteristics: A pronounced red colour (the colour of the meat at shoulder level is graded at between 4 and 6 according to the Japanese colour scale), fat that is white-to-pinkish in colour, a marbled appearance, a high intramuscular-lipid content (at least 6 % on the square side of the chine), low rates of water loss during cooking (meat that is juicy in the mouth), a soft and tender texture after cooking, and an intense and persistent flavour to the taste.

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

Throughout the pigs' life, only plants, by-products and complementary feed derived from non-transgenic products are authorised in the animal feed. The planting of transgenic crops is prohibited on all areas of farms producing animals intended for the production of ‘Kintoa’ protected designation of origin meat.

During the suckling period and until the age of 8 weeks at the latest, the total amount of animal feed that may be given may not exceed 5 kg gross weight per piglet. Processed animal proteins are not permitted.

After weaning, only the following plant-based raw materials are permitted:

— wheat grains, maize, barley, rye, triticale, sorghum, oats; and products derived from them;

— pea seeds, field beans, lupines, vetches, flax; and products derived from them;

— soya beans, sunflower seeds, rapeseed; and their cakes and oils;

— cane and beet molasses;

— lucerne, beet pulp.

The distribution of whey is allowed, except during the two months prior to the pigs being slaughtered. The whey must come from the geographical area.

Animal feed must be sourced primarily from the identified geographical area. Certain feed is allowed not to come from the geographical area due to its very undulating topography that is unsuited to intensive farming and crops.

For an estimated total consumption of 848 kg of dry matter per pig from birth to slaughter, the share of feed originating in the geographical area may be estimated at at least 69,5 %.

In the period between weaning and until the age of 3 months, the feed must contain at least 20 % (in dry matter) cereals from the geographical area; the total amount of feed given may not exceed 60 kg gross weight per piglet.

For pigs over the age of 3 months, the feed must comprise at least 70 % (in dry matter) raw material from the geographical area; the feed formula must contain at least 60 % (in dry matter) cereals and their derived products. The maximum daily amount of feed that may be given is 3,2 kg gross weight per pig between 3 and 8 months, and 2,7 kg gross weight per pig from 8 months on.

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

The pigs must be born, raised and slaughtered in the geographical area.

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

—

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

Irrespective of the regulatory references applicable to the labelling of pork meat, labels of products with the ‘Kintoa’ designation of origin must include the following references:

— the date of slaughter;

— the ‘Kintoa’ designation of origin in characters at least the same size as the largest characters on the label;

— the ‘Kintoa’ colour logo, made available by the group, comprising the word ‘Kintoa’, surmounted by the crown of the kings of Navarre and a drawing of the head of a Basque-breed pig.

4. Concise definition of the geographical area

The geographical area comprises the following cantons, municipalities or parts of municipalities:

— Municipalities included in their entirety: — Department of Landes: Hastingues, Oeyregave, Sorde-L'Abbaye — Department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques: Abitain, Ance, Andrein, Anglet, Angous, Aramits, Araujuzon, Araux, Aren, Arette, Athos-Aspis, Audaux, Auterrive, Autevielle-Saint-Martin-Bideren, Barraute-Camu, Bastanès, Biarritz, Bugnein, Burgaronne, Carresse-Cassaber, Castagnède, Castetbon, Castetnau-Camblong, Charre, Dognen, Escos, Espiute, Esquiule, Féas, Géronce, Gestas, Geüs-d'Oloron, Guinarthe-Parenties, Gurs, Issor, Jasses, Lanne-en-Barétous, L'Hôpital-d'Orion, Laàs, Labastide-Villefranche, Lay-Lamidou, Léren, Lourdios-Ichère, Méritein, Montfort, Moumour, Nabas, Narp, Navarrenx, Oraàs, Orin, Orion, Orriule, Ossenx, Poey-d'Oloron, Préchacq-Josbaig, Préchacq-Navarrenx, Rivehaute, Saint-Dos, Saint-Gladie-Arrive-Munein, Saint-Goin, Saint-Pé-de-Léren, Salies-de-Béarn, Sarrance, Saucède, Sauveterre-de-Béarn, Sus, Susmiou, Tabaille-Usquain, Verdets, Viellenave-de-Navarrenx.

— The municipalities of the following cantons: Baïgura et Mondarrain; Hendaye-Côte Basque-Sud; Montagne Basque (except for Alçay-Alçabéhéty-Sunharette, Haux, Lacarry-Arhan-Charritte-de-Haut, Larrau, Mendive, and Sainte-Engrâce, in parts); Nive-Adour; Pays de Bidache, Amikuze et Ostibarre; Saint-Jean-de-Luz.

— Municipalities included in part: — Department of Landes: Cauneille, Peyrehorade. — Department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques: Arette, Bayonne, Lanne-en-Barétous, Oloron-Sainte-Marie.

5. Link with the geographical area

The geographical area extends over the entire French Basque country and some adjacent cantons and/or municipalities on the border to the east and the north. This area is the western part of the pre-Pyrenees, which borders it to the south. It is bounded to the west by the Atlantic Ocean.

Its climate is exposed to the oceanic flux from the ocean, and is characterised by high levels of rainfall (1 200 to 2 000 mm/year), which is well spread out throughout the year without any dry period. It is also characterised by mild temperatures, even in winter. The southerly Föhn-type wind, called Haïze Hegoa in the Basque country, intermittently brings intense heat and dry air throughout the year — and especially in the spring and autumn — alternating with wetter and cooler periods tied to the passing of oceanic disturbances.

The complex geology of this area, greatly influenced by the proximity of the Pyrenees, accounts for its particular topography, made up of successions of massifs, medium-altitude ranges (1 000-2 000 m), steep and imposing hills, deep valleys and wide basins. In Basse-Navarre, located in the middle of the Basque country, there is a juxtaposition of massifs and basins spread out without any obvious structure in ‘shards of glass’. This is unlike Labourd to the west and Soule to the east, where the landscape features are more linear and run parallel to each other, generally from east to west. This particular geomorphology has resulted in a variety of environments coexisting side-by-side, with different soil and morphological characteristics, and creating a varied landscape.

The vegetation is characterised by the preponderance of swathes of common oak, whether in forests in combination with chestnut trees and beeches at high altitude, Atlantic heathlands, or grasslands or prairies connected to these swathes. The Basque heathland is particular to the area — it spreads over the slopes and peaks of the hills up to a high altitude (1 200 m). It constitutes a man-made environment, made use of by local farmers for millennia. The dominant landscape is made up of cultivated areas and grasslands at the bottom of basins and in all the low-lying areas close to residential areas; a jumble of grasslands; heaths and woods over hillsides; and heaths and natural grassland on mountain and summit peaks.

The term Kintoa originates in the levy for grazing pigs in oak forests, commonly referred to as the ‘one-fifth levy’[droit de quinta], levied by the kings of Navarre since at least the 13th century on the pigs that were herded in transhumance into the royal mountains of Navarre. The kings of Navarre thus collected one pig out of every five, from which this levy's name came. Existing documentation makes it possible to estimate the extent of the area covered by this one-fifth levy, which was Basse-Navarre, the middle part of the Basque country in the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

The vast areas covered with vegetation suitable for raising pigs contributed to the considerable development of pig-rearing by the valleys' inhabitants. Although the valleys' inhabitants were exempt from paying the one-fifth levy on their own herds, they had to declare all the heads coming from areas further afield, or that they were sheltering, or that they had purchased lean in order to sell on once they had been fattened. These two types of commercial pig-rearing left behind a great deal of historical evidence, in particular in the reports sent regularly by the king of Navarre's emissaries to calculate the number of foreign pigs subject to the tax. During the age of grazing pigs in oak forests, ‘foreign’ pigs that came in transhumance came especially from Béarn, Gascogne and Guipuzkoa.

Through this long history, and its importance — both economic and sociological — pig-rearing in Kintoa has a very particular significance. While the natural conditions made it possible for pigs to spread, the pigs have in turn shaped the countryside up to this day.

‘Kintoa’ pork comes from Basque Black Pied pigs, a Mediterranean-type breed also called the Iberian-type. The skin and bristles are grey-to-black in colour at the head, hindquarters, and occasionally in marks on the back. They are white on the rest of the body. The head has a straight-lined bridge of the nose with a long and mobile snout (a ‘mole's head pig’), the limbs are long and not very corpulent with powerful trotters. It has a slow rate of growth. It is incredibly hardy and able to cope with considerable variations in climate and feed, and is quickly able to build up its fat reserves when food is abundant.

The pigs spend at least their final seven months in a specific paddock. It is there that they put on the fat cover and intramuscular fat. The food that they find in this paddock is varied, depending on the type of paddock. Above all, it includes grass and herbaceous plants, as well as — disparately and less consistently — dried fruits (acorns, chestnuts), insects, worms, roots and other plants.

Pigs intended for the production of ‘Kintoa’ meat are slaughtered relatively old (12-24 months compared to 5-6 months for standard meat-producing pigs) having exercised their muscles considerably by the end of their lifetime.

The meat has a pronounced red colour, due to a high myoglobin level, and a consistency not found in conventionally-reared animals.

Pigs intended for the production of ‘Kintoa’ are heavy and fat. The cold carcass weight of the slaughtered pig must be at least 100 kg. The thickness of its back fat must be greater than 25 mm and it must have a lot of intramuscular fat.

The meat is tender, marbled, with a pronounced red colour and has strong aromas.

Causal link

The system for producing pigs intended for the production of ‘Kintoa’ meat rests mainly on the exploitation of the rural environment as a result of the actions of man on the natural environment over the centuries. Local agriculture adapted to a very undulating topography, that is unsuited to intensive farming and crops (with some local exceptions in low-lying and flat areas), creating a landscape where woods, grasslands and heath alternate, and a landscape at altitude where Basque heathland and natural grass are preponderant. Pig-rearing makes the most of this environment by using its diversity to create paddocks where the pigs live for at least 7 months.

In the mild and humid climate of the geographical area, the grass grows almost continuously throughout the year, allowing the paddock to provide feed to the pigs throughout their time outside. This feed is in some cases supplemented by dried fruits under the trees that are typical of the Basque natural environment (common oak, chestnut trees and beech).

The Basque Black Pied breed is adapted to living in paddocks in this landscape because of its physical characteristics: the pig is hardy, well suited to roaming and makes very good use of the plants in the paddock. This feed contribution from the paddock varies naturally depending on the season. However, during the finishing period it represents approximately 50 % of the pigs' daily intake.

In addition, paddocks make regular physical activity possible and necessary for the pigs, resulting in muscle development, which produces a firmer meat with a higher myoglobin content and, therefore, a more red colour.

The rearing period of at least one year makes it possible to produce heavy and fat carcasses, with plenty of intramuscular fat, which makes the meat tender and fragrant. The life of a pig in the paddock, and in particular its many changes of location, as well as its consumption of chlorophyllian plants account for the meat's pronounced red colour and its organoleptic qualities, connected to the type of muscle fibres that are characteristic of a roaming pig.

Reference to publication of the specification

(the second subparagraph of Article 6(1) of this Regulation)

https://info.agriculture.gouv.fr/gedei/site/bo-agri/document_administratif-2bfd574b-c6d1-4ebd-9877-68f0e53d0554/telechargement

(1) OJ L 343, 14.12.2012, p. 1.