The Consorzi di tutela del prosciutto di Parma e di San Daniele DOP introduce a temporary amendment to their specifications, 22-23.12.21, after the darkness over the data on pork carcass classification.
In the absence of carcass grading controls for 24 months on slaughterhouses processing Parma (half of the total, in Italy, in the PDO pork circuit). So much for reg. EU 1151/2012.
Prosciutto di Parma and San Daniele PDO, temporary amendment of specifications
In quick succession, on the eve of the holiday season, the MiPAAF published amendments to the production specifications for Parma and San Daniele PDO hams. (1)
The reasons given by the consortia are the most varied and flimsy, from the leitmotif of the pandemic to swine fever in South Africa to the shortage of drivers and tires… In Parma they even assume half a million more out-of-weight carcasses in 2022 than in 2021. Hard to believe, an understatement, as RIFT (Registro Italiano Filiera Tutelata) data show homogeneous numbers and average slaughter weights between 2020 and 2021 for PDO/PGI purposes (see Fig. 1).
The temporary changes provide for the acceptance of carcasses of different weights (+15 -10 %) from the limits established to guarantee the quality of hams with protected designation of origin. And they intervene, as seen (2,3,4), after that:
– 10.6.21, the MiPAAF defined the final terms of use of genetics not allowed in Italian PDOs and PGIs,
– on 6.8.21, the monitoring institutions exposed that they had established nonconformities between January 2020 and June 2021 on 27 percent of the batches (27,680 out of 102,895). And the problem affected 77 percent of farms (1,949 out of 2,534),
– controls will now have to be performed on the actual yield of individual carcasses instead of phantasmagorical yield calculations (82% + 4%).
Darkness on data
The CUN (Single National Commission) pigs were boycotted by slaughterhouse representatives, recall, on 6/30/21. And there is no news of (dutiful) sanction measures being taken against them, among other things. Slaughterers after all used to alter market data for their sole benefit, as this writer has repeatedly reported in vain with evidence of serious discrepancies between slaughterhouse numbers and RIFT numbers. (5)
The climax is now the absolute denial of transparency on the value chain. To the point that for more than two months-more precisely, since 3.11.21, week 43-the reporting of pig carcass classification data on the MiPAAF website has inexplicably stopped. Any comparison with actual data on the number of animals slaughtered is thus impossible.
Parma out of control
Slaughterhouses on the PDO Parma ham circuit, and the many PDOs and PGIs associated with the same pigs, have themselves been completely excluded from the controls essential for classifying carcasses for 24 months now. Nor is there any record of public notice of tender for awarding them to a certification body.
In practice, for the past two years, there has been no guarantee on the actual quality of hams, which is closely linked to the strict selection of only thighs with adequate fat cover. In fact, the natural function of fat, as noted, (2) is to protect meat from salt and prevent it from hardening.
Interim conclusions
The patch almost seems to be worse than the hole. Those who transform decide and command, forcing the application of rules at their convenience or disapplying them. Breeders and consumers are conversely excluded from the big processors’ games. But their short-sightedness could backfire, damaging the entire system-Country when the overall decline in the quality of PDO hams emerges. And this is the real risk to be considered by reasoning, if anything, as the writer has proposed, about product differentiation. (2)
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) MiPAAF. Temporary amendments to PDO specifications. https://www.politicheagricole.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/8079
(2) Dario Dongo. Parma and San Daniele PDO hams, high yield or superior quality? The great chaos. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 8/28/21, %C3%
(3) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Swine market, mystery about PDO carcass classification. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 11.3.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/mercato-suinicolo-mistero-sulla-classificazione-delle-carcasse-dop
(4) Dario Dongo. Prosciutto San Daniele DOP, the consequences of the new specification. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 10.4.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/prosciutto-san-daniele-dop-le-conseguenze-del-nuovo-disciplinare
(5) Dario Dongo. CUN pigs, the boycott of slaughterers united in Assica. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 14.7.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/cun-suini-il-boicottaggio-dei-macellatori-riuniti-in-assica
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
