Publication of the amended single document following the approval of a minor amendment pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 53(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012

(2022/C 263/09)

The European Commission has approved this minor amendment in accordance with the third subparagraph of Article 6(2) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 664/2014 (1).

The application for approval of this minor amendment can be consulted in the Commission’s eAmbrosia database.

SINGLE DOCUMENT

‘GRANA PADANO’

EU No: PDO-IT-0011-AM05 – 19.1.2022

PDO (X) PGI ( )

1. Name(s)

‘Grana Padano’

2. Member State or Third Country

Italy

3. Description of the agricultural product or foodstuff

3.1. Type of product

Class 1.3. Cheeses

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

Hard, cooked-curd, slow-matured cheese, made throughout the year and used as a table cheese or grated; it is produced from raw, partially skimmed milk from cows, milked twice a day, whose basic diet consists of fresh or dried forage; the milk used may come from one milking or from two milkings mixed together. The cheese is made in wheels with slightly convex or almost straight sides, and with a slightly raised edge on the flat faces.

The wheels measure 35 to 45 cm in diameter and 18 to 25 cm high, with variations depending on technical production conditions.

Weight: from 24 to 40 kg; rind: hard and smooth, 4 – 8 mm thickness.

The paste is hard, with a finely grained texture, breaks into flakes along radial cracks and has barely visible eyes. The minimum fat content in dry matter is 32 %. The colour of the rind is a natural golden yellow and the paste is white or straw-coloured. The paste has a fragrant aroma and a delicate taste.

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

The basic diet fed to dairy cattle, consisting of green or preserved forage, is used for milking cows, dry cows and heifers over 7 months old. The dairy cows are fed primarily with feedstuffs grown on their home farm or in the ‘Grana Padano’ PDO production area.

No less than 50 % of the dry matter of the daily ration must be made up of forage, with a ratio of forage to non-forage feedstuffs of no less than 1, in terms of dry matter. At least 75 % of forage dry matter in the daily ration should come from feedstuffs produced in the production area of the milk.

There is a list of authorised feedstuffs which includes:

forage: fresh forage, hay, straw, silage (not permitted for Trentigrana production);

raw materials for non-forage feedstuffs, grouped by category, which may be used in addition to forage: cereals and their derivatives, oilseeds and their derivatives, tubers and roots and products derived from them, dehydrated forages, derivatives of the sugar industry, legume seeds, fats, minerals, additives.

Raw materials: raw cow’s milk, natural continuous whey starter and calf rennet. The milk comes from cows reared in the geographical area defined in point 4.

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

The production and maturing operations must take place in the territory of the production area defined in point 4.

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

Grating and related packaging must take place within the production area defined in point 4 since fresh grated cheese is a highly sensitive product and the preservation of its organoleptic characteristics requires it to be packaged immediately in conditions such as to avoid any drying out; furthermore, immediately packing the cheese in packaging bearing the designation of origin is better able to guarantee the authenticity of the grated product, which by nature is more difficult to identify than a whole cheese with visible identity markings (as confirmed by the judgment of the Court of Justice of 20 May 2003).

The use, for the production of grated ‘Grana Padano’, of cheese trimmings left over from the cutting and packaging of ‘Grana Padano’ PDO marketed in pieces of varying or fixed weight, as blocks, cubes, bite-sized pieces etc., is permitted only under the following conditions: the proportion of rind cannot exceed 18 %; the traceability of the whole ‘Grana Padano’ PDO cheese from which the trimmings come must be guaranteed; where the trimmings are not to be used immediately and/or are transferred from one establishment to another, they must be kept apart by registration number and month of production; trimmings may only be transferred within the same cheesemaking business or between businesses within the business group. Trimmings to be used for grated ‘Grana Padano’ may not therefore be sold as a stand-alone product.

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

The official mark attesting to the product having met the requirements justifying the use of the ‘Grana Padano’ protected designation of origin, and which must therefore appear on the whole wheel of ‘Grana Padano’ PDO cheese, consists of a rhombus shape on which the words ‘GRANA’ and ‘PADANO’ are printed in upper-case letters. In the upper and lower corners of the rhombus, which are rounded, appear respectively the initials ‘G’ and ‘P’.

The stencilling bands which cold-stamp the origin mark on the wheels at the moulding stage are made up of a number of lozenge rhombuses which contain within them the alternating words ‘GRANA’ and ‘PADANO’, and bear the cheese dairy’s identification references and the month and year of production.

Only ‘Grana Padano’ PDO produced in the Autonomous Province of Trento, made using milk from cows fed on forage, with a year-round ban on feeding silage of any kind, qualifies for use of the special ‘TRENTINGRANA’ stencilling bands, consisting of a line of lozenge rhombuses split by the word ‘TRENTINO’; in the centre, between the outlines of stylised mountains, the word ‘TRENTINO’ appears the right way up and upside down.

The identification of origin by means of stencilling bands is supplemented with the affixing of a casein disc bearing the words ‘Grana Padano’, the year of production and an alphanumeric code which unambiguously identifies each cheese wheel.

‘Grana Padano’ cheese which has been matured for at least 20 months after being moulded within the production area and which has all the following qualities may be described as ‘RISERVA’ [‘reserve’]:

— classified as ‘scelto sperlato’ [‘certified top quality’];

— paste with evident grains and a texture that clearly breaks into flakes along radial cracks;

— uniform white or straw colour;

— absence of abnormal odours;

— fragrant and delicate taste.

Classification in the category ‘Grana Padano’ RISERVA is shown by a second mark branded onto the side of the wheel of cheese at the request of the operators, in accordance with the same rules governing the affixing of the PDO mark.

The mark in question consists of a circle, split transversely in the centre by a large band delimited by parallel upper and lower lines; the word ‘RISERVA’ in upper-case letters is written in the centre of this band. The word ‘OLTRE’ in upper-case letters and the number ‘20’ are written in the upper half, and the word ‘MESI’ in upper-case letters is written in the lower half [meaning ‘more than 20 months’].

Cheese packaged by authorised packagers must bear the ‘Grana Padano’ logo on the packaging.

When printed on the packaging, the features of the official mark attesting to the product having met the requirements justifying the use of the ‘Grana Padano’ protected designation of origin, as described at the beginning of this point 3.6, are slightly different, in that the letters ‘G’ and ‘P’ are missing from the upper and lower corners of the rhombus. This is shown on a background colour of Pantone 109 C, in the same shape as the black component of the design but slightly bigger.

The parameters for reproducing the logo on packaging are as follows:

Key:

Tratto per nero black component Tratto per giallo yellow component Marchio completo complete mark

Packaging that contains ‘Grana Padano’ PDO cheese meeting the characteristics of the specific type TRENTINGRANA as described above must be characterised by the following image on the packaging and in the corresponding advertising material:

For the packaged products, once compliance with the quality requirements has been verified through the second quality inspection, the following additional categories are applicable: ‘Grana Padano’ RISERVA Oltre 20 Mesi and ‘Grana Padano’ RISERVA Oltre 24 Mesi [more than 24 months].

The specification of the actual ageing is also allowed on the packaging of ‘Grana Padano’ from 12 months onwards.

This specification remains optional, however. If it is to be added, the ageing must be indicated uniformly on all the packages, using the appropriate numbering, in yellow on black, adding the words ‘Oltre X mesi’ (‘more than X months’).

In particular, the parameters for the indication of ageing are as follows:

On the packaging containing cheese of the category ‘Grana Padano’ RISERVA Oltre 20 Mesi, the logo that is branded onto those cheeses is reproduced in addition to the ‘Grana Padano’ logo as described above.

The logo in question is composed of the following: a circle, split transversely by a large band delimited by parallel upper and lower lines; the word ‘RISERVA’ in upper-case letters is written in the centre of this band. The word ‘OLTRE’ in upper-case letters is written in the upper half, and the number ‘20’ and the word ‘MESI’ in upper-case letters are written in the lower half.

The design is gold on a black background in the same shape as the gold component of the design but slightly bigger.

The parameters for reproducing the logo concerned on packaging are as follows:

Key:

C Cyan M Magenta Y Yellow Key Key colour (black) (Si veda a sotto) (See below) Posizione Settings

The specification of the actual ageing from 24 months onwards is also allowed on the packaging of ‘Grana Padano’ cheese that has previously been branded with the ‘RISERVA - Oltre 20 Mesi’ logo.

This specification remains optional, however. If it is to be added, the ageing must be indicated uniformly on all the packages, using the appropriate logo, similar to that described above for the ‘RISERVA - Oltre 20 Mesi’, but written in black on a gold background.

More specifically, the parameters for reproducing the specific logo in question are set out below:

Key:

C Cyan M Magenta Y Yellow Key Key colour (black) (Si veda a sotto) (See below) Posizione Settings

As in the case of the cheese in the ‘RISERVA - OLTRE 20 MESI’ category, the ‘Grana Padano’ logo as described above must also be reproduced on the packaging bearing this logo.

The ageing logos shall follow the progression clearly shown in the following diagram:

Key:

Sviluppo loghi stagionatura Progression of ageing logos

4. Concise definition of the geographical area

The area in which ‘Grana Padano’ PDO cheese is produced and grated consists of the territory of the provinces of Alessandria, Asti, Biella, Cuneo, Novara, Torino, Verbania, Vercelli, Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Lecco, Lodi, Mantova on the left bank of the Po, Milano, Monza, Pavia, Sondrio, Varese, Trento, Padova, Rovigo, Treviso, Venezia, Verona, Vicenza, Bologna to the right of the Reno, Ferrara, Forlì Cesena, Piacenza, Ravenna and Rimini, as well as the following municipalities of the province of Bolzano: Anterivo, Lauregno, Proves, Senale-S. Felice and Trodena.

5. Link with the geographical area

The production area for ‘Grana Padano’ PDO is largely the same as the region of the Po Valley, that is to say the geographical area of the Po riverbed, characterised by alluvial, fluvioglacial floodplain soils, well-supplied with water: this is one of the most fertile areas of the world and among the best suited for growing forage.

In particular, these soil characteristics, together with the area’s microclimate, favour the production of maize, which represents the base forage for the cows whose milk is intended for ‘Grana Padano’ PDO, since it can comprise up to 50 % of the dry matter ingested.

The reclamation and irrigation of the Po Valley since the 11th century has given rise to the local development of livestock rearing. The resulting availability of substantial quantities of milk, which was surplus to the daily needs of the rural population, prompted the need to transform it into a cheese that kept well. Even today, the large supply of local forage, in particular maize, linked to the vast supply of water, is an essential element for maintaining livestock rearing and the consequent supply of milk.

The specificity of ‘Grana Padano’ PDO may be ascribed to the following elements:

— the size and weight of the wheels of cheese,

— the particular morphology of the paste, linked to the production technique, characterised by a granular texture which gives rise to its typical tendency to break into flakes,

— the white or straw colour of the paste, with a delicate flavour and fragrant aroma, due essentially to the widespread use of waxy maize in the cattle’s diet,

— water and fat content that are largely similar to the protein content,

— high level of natural breakdown of the proteins into peptones, peptides and free amino acids,

— suitability for lengthy maturing, even beyond 20 months.

The causal link between ‘Grana Padano’ PDO and its area of origin may be ascribed to the following elements:

— The high irrigation potential of the Po Valley and the resulting availability of forage, including mainly waxy maize, which is responsible for the specific characteristics of the white or straw colour, flavour and aroma of the paste. Indeed, the direct result of using maize or waxy maize silage is the inclusion in the diet of fewer colourants such as carotene, anthocyanins and chlorophyll than if using a diet based on multi-species hay or green forage species. This is a direct effect of silaging;

— The use of raw milk, which has the effect of including in the process of cheesemaking lactic acid bacteria typical of the area;

— The use of a natural continuous whey starter, which creates an unbroken microbiological link with the production area. In fact, the milk which turns into whey, and thus into the continuous whey starter, is the link in the chain joining the cheesemaking process to the production area and also ensures the continued and constant inclusion of lactic acid bacteria typical of the area of origin, which give ‘Grana Padano’ PDO cheese its main special characteristics. The causal link between the characteristics of the product and its area of origin is also provided by the cheesemaker who has always been of central and fundamental importance in the production of ‘Grana Padano’ PDO. Even today, the task of transforming milk into ‘Grana Padano’ PDO is entrusted to cheesemakers rather than to technicians or scientists.

Reference to publication of the product specification

The full text of the product specification is available on the following Internet: http://www.politicheagricole.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/3335

or alternatively:

by going directly to the homepage of the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policy (www.politicheagricole.it) and clicking on ‘Qualità e sicurezza’ (at the top right-hand side of the screen) and then on ‘Disciplinari di Produzione all’esame dell’UE’.

(1) OJ L 179, 19.6.2014, p. 17.