Poland beats Germany in EU sausage war

The Polish Ministry of Agriculture, backed by scores of kabanos producers across Poland, had sought a Traditional Speciality Guaranteeed (TSG) status, one of three carefully delineated trademarks championed by the EU.

However, Berlin had opposed the campaign, amid fears that German sausage-producers would be compromised by the ruling.

Initially, Austria and the Czech Republic had also objected to the kabanos registration, but after talks with the Polish side, their anxieties were allayed.

Effectively, companies throughout Europe will still be able to produce kabanos under that name, provided that it is made acccording to specific time-honoured recipes.

In this respect the TSG trademark is less stringent than the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status, which insists that a given product must be entirely manufactured within a particular region, according to a specific recipe.

A representative example of TSG is mozzarella cheese, which although registered in Italy, may be made anywhere and called mozarella, provided that it follows approved guidelines, thus winning the trademark.

Other products on the TSG list include Spain’s Jamon Serrano, Italy’s Pizza Napoletana and the UK’s Traditional Bramley Apple Pie Filling.

The kabanos registration is due to be officially announced by the European Commission next week. (nh/jb)

Source: IAR/Rzeczpospolita