Gloucestershire Old Spot Pig awarded protected food name status (From Smallholder)

Gloucestershire Old Spot Pig awarded protected food name status

8:10am Wednesday 23rd June 2010 in

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Please note that the Gloucestershire Old Spots pig breed has been awarded TSG (Traditional Speciality Guaranteed) status by the EU Commission this week. This was announced by DEFRA Secretary, Caroline Spelman, at the Three Counties Show at Malvern on Friday 18th June.

TSG is one of the Protected Food Names registered in Europe. The others, PDO & PGI, apply to such products as Champagne, Parma Ham & Melton Mowbray Pork Pies. Where the TSG differs is that there is no geographic limitation to where the product may be produced within the UK or, indeed, the whole EU.

This is only the second TSG awarded to a British product (the other being Traditional Farmfresh Turkeys) and the very first breed of any species in the whole world to be so recognised.

The net result will be that in future, once we have a policing scheme approved, only the produce of pigs that comply with the strict criteria agreed can be labelled as being from Gloucestershire Old Spots (or even Gloster Spot or any other connotation of the official name). The criteria are that both parents must be regsitered pedigree GOS pigs and that the offspring must be birth notified and tattooed with their number. In addition, the method of farming must comply with the non-intensive methods agreed with the EU Commission (to avoid exploitation in factory farms by those involved in supplying the mass market).

The Club has worked on this over an 11 year period in order to ensure the integrity of produce marketed on the High Street and via the internet in order to protect the breed. Numbers have increased over the last 15 years on the back of marketing its superior quality meat and unfortunately this has led to unscrupulous producers and retailers labelling some produce as being derived from GOS pigs when there is, at best, only a passing whiff of a GOS pig involved. The Gloucestershire Old Spots Pig Breeders' Club has been objecting strongly to just such a situation with one of the leading supermarkets over the last two years.

The GOS breed was one of our rarest only 30-40 years ago but came off the list of rare breeds several years ago and is now classified as 'Minority'.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2009:238:0008:0013:EN:PDF Richard Lutwyche, Secretary Gloucestershire Old Spots Pig Breeders' Club www.oldspots.org.uk