EN Official Journal of the European Union C 57/24

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

2013/C 57/10

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

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 510/2006

on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs (2)

‘LIETUVIŠKAS VARŠKĖS SŪRIS’

EC No: LT-PGI-0005-0853-28.01.2011

PGI ( X ) PDO ( )

1. Name:

‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’

2. Member State or Third Country:

Lithuania

3. Description of the agricultural product or foodstuff:

3.1. Type of product:

Class 1.3. Cheeses

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

‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ is an unripened curd cheese which has a triangular prism shape with rounded corners and the imprint of the knotted cheese bag at its thicker end. It can be consumed fresh, smoked, baked or dried. The cheese is made in the age-old way, in which the milk is curdled using only a lactic acid bacteria starter culture, without the use of ferments. It gets its characteristic shape when the curd is stuffed by hand into the traditional triangular cheese bags — which are tied shut with a knot at the wider end — and pressed. Herbs and/or salt may or may not be added to the cheeses. The size of the cheeses depends on their intended use and can range from a few hundred grams to 5 kg or more. The cheese is made without any additives, flavourings or colourings.

Characteristics

Colour: The fresh and dried cheeses are white to yellowish in colour. The baked cheese is yellowish to brownish in colour, with an outer surface that may be covered with seasonings and/or herbs and a white to yellowish cross-section. The outer surface of the smoked cheese is dark yellow to brown, while the cross-section is white to yellow.

Texture: The fresh cheese is soft, homogeneous, rather dense and may crumble when cut, while the baked cheese is homogeneous, dense and a little elastic, and the smoked cheese is homogeneous, dense and crumbly. The dried cheese is homogeneous in texture, hard, difficult to cut and crumbles when broken. If the cheese is made with seasonings, they may be unevenly distributed.

Aroma and flavour: characteristic lactic acid with hints of the flavour and aroma of the seasonings used (caraway, salt, etc.). The smoked cheese also has a perceptible smoky aroma and flavour.

Physical and chemical characteristics:

— depending on its composition, ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ can be 7-25 % fat by weight or low-fat (up to 0,5 % fat by weight),

— the dry matter content depends on the fat content of the cheese and its further processing. It must be at least 31 % in fresh, baked and smoked cheeses and at least 67 % in dried cheese,

— the active acidity pH is at least 4,3 %.

3.3. Raw materials (for processed products only):

— cow’s milk,

— mesophilic lactic acid bacteria starter culture,

— salt,

— herbs traditionally grown in Lithuania (caraway, garlic, mint, etc.).

The raw materials used to make ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ may also come from outside the specified geographical area.

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

There are no specific quality requirements or restrictions as regards origin.

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

Steps in making ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’:

— standardisation, pasteurisation, cooling and fermentation of the milk,

— separation of the whey,

— self-pressing of the curds,

— shaping and pressing of the cheese: The curd mass is placed by hand into small, triangular bags made of thin, woven cloth (cheesecloth). These are tied shut with a knot at the wider end. They are pressed in a press or clamp until the required moisture content has been reached,

— processing of the cheese: The shaped cheese is cooled to a temperature of 6-12 °C and removed from the cheese bag. If smoked, baked or dried cheese is being made, the cheese is smoked, baked or dried after cooling, as appropriate. If baked cheese with seasonings is being made, the cheese is rubbed with a mixture of seasonings and salt and left for at least 12 hours in a room kept at a temperature of 10-20 °C before baking.

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

‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ is packaged at the production site, as it is crumbly in texture, particularly in the case of the fresh cheese, and difficult to cut, and transporting it elsewhere for packaging would impair its appearance and quality. Furthermore, its shelf-life is short, and there is a risk of bacterial contamination.

3.7. Specific rules concerning labelling:

Producers making ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ in accordance with the published specification for this product may use the name ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ for the purposes of labelling, advertising and marketing.

The label must show:

— the name of the specific producer,

— the fat content as a percentage of the weight of the cheese or the indication ‘liesas’ (low-fat),

— the words ‘protected geographical indication’ and/or the EU symbol.

4. Concise definition of the geographical area:

The geographical area to which the application relates covers the whole of the Republic of Lithuania. ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ was, and still is, made in the traditional way throughout the specified area, while, in the surrounding regions, such cheese is made only in the remaining Lithuanian enclaves in Belarus. The emergence of this distinctive product, which has long been produced only in Lithuania and is known throughout the country, is attributable to Lithuania’s geographical location and the way of life.

5. Link with the geographical area:

5.1. Specificity of the geographical area:

Lithuania is a small country with an area of only 65 300 km2, which is similar to that of some Member States’ regions. As the cheese has a long tradition of consumption throughout Lithuania, it is known as ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’.

In Lithuania, subsistence farming was the predominant way of life (industrialisation came late), which meant that the staple diet of the rural population was, and continued to be, made up of cereals and dairy products.

Curd cheese was already being made in Lithuania in the Middle Ages and, in written sources, is mentioned in the inventories of manor houses dating from the 16th century. Where food was cooked in a bread oven, a pot of sour milk would be placed inside, once it had cooled down a little, and would be left until spongy yellow proteins rose to the surface. Upon removal, the pot would be emptied into a triangular bag (a cheese bag), which would be hung up to drain. The drained curd would then be pressed in special presses or placed on a hard surface (a table, bench or other horizontal surface), covered with a board and pressed with a stone. When the weather was damp in autumn and spring, the surface of the curd cheeses would often be covered by a bacterial ‘smear’ or mould, so they were preserved by being lightly baked in a moderately hot oven or by smoking. Curd cheeses intended for longer storage were dried.

5.2. Specificity of the product:

Because of its characteristic and, at the same time, simple production process, requiring no rennet and no ripening but merely fermentation of the milk and pressing of the curds, which, when formed into cheeses, could be salted and then dried, smoked or baked, ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ also made it possible for people living on farmsteads to lay up provisions for the winter, when the cows usually dried up.

It is the traditional, very labour-intensive production method, which has remained largely unchanged to this day, that gives ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ its distinctiveness. The basic raw materials used in its production are pasteurised cow’s milk and a mesophilic lactic acid bacteria starter culture, which gives it its lactic-acid flavour. The cheese mass is stuffed by hand into the traditional thin, woven, triangular cheese bags, whose wider end is tied shut with a knot, thus giving the cheese its specific shape, i.e. a triangular prism with rounded corners, while the surface bears the imprint of the cloth, with wrinkles where the cloth was tied together in a knot. The shape of the cheese bag is also determined by the fact that fresh ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ is crumbly, and it is easier to remove it intact from a triangular cheese bag than from a bag of any other shape. ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ is an integral part of Lithuania’s culinary and national heritage and image.

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 link between ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ and the geographical area is based on its reputation, as illustrated by literary sources, recipe books and its popularity in daily life, on festive occasions and in representing Lithuania.

In 1690, when writing about Lithuanian food and drink in his book Der Preusche Littauer (the Prussian Lithuanian), Theodor Lepner, a protestant pastor who worked in Lithuania, included the following description of ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’: ‘They make their cheeses in the following way: they place well-salted curds in a cloth, wrap them up to allow the whey to drain off and hang the curds in the granary to set. They then eat the cheese, cutting it into several pieces and laying it before their guests. It tastes as good to them as if it were the best Dutch cheese.’ Some 300 years later, Vilius Puronas wrote the following description in his book Nuo mamutų iki cepelinų (From Mammoths to Potato Dumplings) (1999): ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ was produced and eaten throughout Lithuania (not just in one ethnographic area), while our neighbours’ mouths watered and they asked us for the recipe. Our ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ — with caraway, fresh or dried — in today’s shop windows has changed little since then.

The first recipe book in the Lithuanian language, Lietuvos gaspadinė arba pamokinimai kaip prigulinčiai suvartoti dievo dovanas (The Lithuanian housewife, or lessons on how best to consume God’s gifts), published in Tilžė (Tilsit) in 1893, and Šeimininkėms vadovėlis (The Housewife’s Handbook), published in Sejny in 1911, contained recipes for ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’. ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ was also described in the literature for specialists in the dairy industry, e.g. in Svarbesniais pieno produktų gamybos klausimais nurodymų ir instrukcijų rinkinys (A collection of indications and instructions on the most important issues in the production of dairy products), published in 1947 by Pienocentras (the Central Union of Dairy Cooperatives), and in the book Pieno produktų pardavimas ir vartojimas (The sale and consumption of dairy products), published in Vilnius in 1958. This kind of cheese, known as ‘Lithuanian cheese’, started to be produced industrially from the end of the 19th century. In milk processing plants, the cheese production process is mechanised, but the curds are still stuffed into cheese bags and the bags tied shut by hand, just as they have been for centuries. Even today, presses made according to the old model are still used when making cheese at home.

In Lithuania, ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ is still an integral part of the ritual of various gatherings, christenings, weddings and other family celebrations, and is a perfect gift. It is also indispensable in everyday life. In Lithuania, it is customary to eat the fresh cheese on its own, with jam or honey, or in sandwiches, to eat the baked or smoked ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ with beer or gira (a fermented bread drink), and to take the dried cheese along on a trip or longer journey. It is customary to make a large ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ for festivities. One weighing as much as 99 kg was made in the dairy in Ukmergė for the song festival in 2007. The biggest smoked ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’, weighing 12 kg, was made for Midsummer’s Day in 2009 in Biržai District. It was made with 105 litres of milk and smoked in a special oven for two whole days. The matron of honour brings a large, delicious, fresh ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ to the wedding to decorate the table, and, as a symbol of the couple’s intimacy and steadfastness, the bride gives a dried ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ to the musicians on the morning of the second day of the wedding for serenading them awake.

Since 2006, an educational programme entitled ‘Sūrio kelias’ (the cheese route) has been held at the museum on the Rokiškis Manor Estate. Every year, approximately 6 000 visitors learn about the old methods of making ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’, see the ethnographic utensils and taste various cheeses. ‘Lietuviškas varškės sūris’ was very popular with visitors at ‘Green Week 2009’, an international exhibition held in Berlin.

The cheese-makers’ experience, knowledge and skills, developed over centuries, have made it possible to adapt the production process to modern conditions, retain the specific shape of the product and guarantee quality.

Reference to publication of the specification:

(Article 5(7) of Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 (3))

http://www.zum.lt/index.php?-1085950496

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

(2) OJ L 93, 31.3.2006, p. 12. Replaced by Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs.

(3) See footnote 2.