Within 3 months from the date of this publication, the authorities of a Member State or of a third country, or a natural or legal person having a legitimate interest and established or resident in a third country, may lodge an opposition with the Commission in accordance with Article 61 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2).

Application for a union amendment to the product specification of a traditional speciality guaranteed

‘Spišské párky’

EU No: TSG-CZ+SK-0051-AM01 – 25 September 2023

1.   Name of product

‘Spišské párky’

2.   Applicant and legitimate interest

Slovenský zväz spracovateľov mäsa [Slovak Meat Processors Association]

Einsteinova 3754/25

85101 Bratislava – mestská časť Petržalka

Tel. +421 902947522

E-mail: slovmaso@gmail.com

Český svaz zpracovatelů masa [Czech Meat Processors Association]

Einsteinova 319/126

142 00 Praha – Libuš-Písnice

Tel. +420 234697755

E-mail: sekretariat@cszm.cz

Slovenský zväz spracovateľov mäsa and Český svaz zpracovatelů masa represent producers of Spišské párky (TSG). Market feedback and a subsequent information-gathering exercise showed that the Spišské párky placed on the market by producers are filled in sheep-intestine casings of different diameters ranging from 18/20 mm to 22/24 mm, which is in line with the applicable Commission Regulation (EU) No 159/2011 (3) entering the name Spišské párky (TSG) in the Register of Traditional Specialities Guaranteed and containing the product specification in its annex.

However, the information-gathering exercise also indicated that the weight of Spišské párky (TSG) sausages in sheep-intestine casings of diameters from 18/20 mm to 22/24 mm ranged from 40 g to 65 g, which is not in line with the currently applicable descriptive parameter for the weight of an individual sausage.

In order to preserve the production of Spišské párky (TSG) in the territory concerned, we propose redefining the weight range as 40 g – 65 g, which is in the interest of all producers that make Spišské párky (TSG).

3.   Member State or third country

Slovak Republic

Czech Republic

4.   Heading in the product specification affected by the amendment(s)

☐	Name of product

☒	Description of products

☐	Method of production

☐	Other [please specify]

5.   Amendment(s)

Current wording:

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.

Proposed wording:

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 between 40 g and 65 g. They are typically pinkish-red in colour, owing to the paprika seasoning, and have a slightly piquant taste.

Grounds for the application by Slovenský zväz spracovateľov mäsa for an amendment to the product specification of Spišské párky (TSG):

Practice has shown that the current wording of TSG product specification SK-TSG-0007-0051-18.1.2007 for ‘Spišské párky’ published pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 509/2006 (4) stating the weight of the individual sausages as ‘about 50 g’ is not realistic owing to the sheep-intestine casings used, which range from 18/20 mm to 22/24 mm in diameter, and therefore needs to be amended.

In agreement with Český svaz zpracovatelů masa as the organisation jointly registering the TSG for Spišské párky, Slovenský zväz spracovateľov mäsa conducted a survey of the Slovak market, covering – at an educated guess – 90 % of Slovak producers in terms of the volume of Spišské párky (TSG) produced.

The data collected showed that the Spišské párky placed on the market by Slovak producers are contained in sheep-intestine casings of different diameters ranging from 18/20 mm to 22/24 mm, which is in line with the current point 3.5 of TSG product specification SK-TSG-0007-0051-18.1.2007 published pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 509/2006.

In the survey Slovak producers also pointed out that, owing to the unavailability of certain diameters of sheep-intestine casing at certain times or owing to specific customer requirements, they had had to use casings of various diameters within the defined range in order to be able to place Spišské párky (TSG) on the market in the required quantities.

The data collected also showed that with the diameters of casing used ranging from 18/20 mm to 22/24 mm, the weight of the individual Spišské párky (TSG) was in the 40 g – 65 g range. Discussions also revealed that the sausage weight was affected not just by the diameter of the casing, but also by the length of the sausage itself.

At the same time, the final weight of the individual sausages is also affected by the manufacturing technology used, as stuffers with automatic twisting of the casings ensure less variation in sausage weight during the stuffing process than in the case of manual twisting.

In order not to limit the production of Spišské párky (TSG) and to take account of the technology or the more artisanal type of production employed by certain producers, we propose that the data collected regarding individual sausage weight be fully accepted and the weight range defined as 40 g – 65 g, which is in the interest of all producers of Spišské párky (TSG).

PRODUCT SPECIFICATION OF A TRADITIONAL SPECIALITY GUARANTEED

‘Spišské párky’

EU No: TSG-CZ+SK-0051-AM01 – 25 September 2023

Member State or third country: Czech Republic and Slovak Republic

1.   Name to be registered

‘Spišské párky’

2.   Type of product

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

3.   Grounds for registration

The product:

☒	results from a mode of production, processing or composition corresponding to traditional practice for that product or foodstuff;

☐	is produced from raw materials or ingredients that are those traditionally used.

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, and their physical and chemical and organoleptic properties.

The name:

☒	has been traditionally used to refer to the specific product;

☐	identifies the traditional character or specific character of the product.

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’ [sausages] of a particular type.

4.   Description

4.1.   Description of the product to which the name under point 1 applies, including its main physical, chemical, microbiological or organoleptic characteristics showing the product’s specific character (Article 7(2) of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 668/2014 (5) )

‘Spišské párky’ are contained in sheep-intestine casings of up to 24 mm in diameter and are separated by twisting. The individual sausages weigh between 40 and 65 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 string contained in a sheep-intestine casing of a diameter up to 24 mm, separated by twisting the intestine to form individual sausages, 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;

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

—	consistency: soft to compact.

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 smell 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.

4.2.   Description of the production method of the product to which the name under point 1 applies that the producers must follow including, where appropriate, the nature and characteristics of the raw materials or ingredients used, and the method by which the product is prepared (Article 7(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 668/2014)

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 kgs

—	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.

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;

—	following the processing of the beef and pork, the addition of the pork rind is checked;

—	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-intestine casings, 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, smell 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 an individual 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.

4.3.   Description of the key elements establishing the product’s traditional character (Article 7(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 668/2014)

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 at the foot of 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 Žifcák, 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.’ (Štefan Žáry, Zlatoústi rozprávači, Bratislava, Slovenský spisovateľ 1984.)

In addition to 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, page 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, page 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 (‘Upršaný Prvý máj na košickom sídlisku železiarov’, SME, daily newspaper, Bratislava: Petit Press, 2 May 1997, page 1) and various fairs such as the Folk Crafts Fair (Trh ľudových remesiel) in Spišská Nová Ves, at which, as well as ‘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, page 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 intestine. They typically enjoy a good reputation not only in Slovakia and the Czech Republic but also in other countries.

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(1)   OJ L 343, 14.12.2012, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2012/1151/oj.

(2)  Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 on geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, as well as traditional specialities guaranteed and optional quality terms for agricultural products, amending Regulations (EU) No 1308/2013, (EU) 2019/787 and (EU) 2019/1753 and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 (OJ L, 2024/1143, 23.4.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1143/oj).

(3)  Commission Regulation (EU) No 159/2011 of 21 February 2011 entering a name in the register of traditional specialities guaranteed (Spišské párky (TSG)) (OJ L 47, 22.2.2011, p. 5, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2011/159/oj).

(4)  Council Regulation (EC) No 509/2006 of 20 March 2006 on agricultural products and foodstuffs as traditional specialities guaranteed (OJ L 93, 31.3.2006, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2006/509/oj).

(5)  Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 668/2014 of 13 June 2014 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs (OJ L 179, 19.6.2014, p. 36, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2014/668/oj).