COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION

of 16 January 2019

on the publication in the

Official Journal of the European Union

of the application for registration of a name referred to in Article 49 of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council

‘Džiugas’ (PGI)

(2019/C 28/03)

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to 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 (1), and in particular Article 50(2)(a) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Lithuania has sent to the Commission an application for protection of the name ‘Džiugas’ in accordance with Article 49(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012.

(2) In accordance with Article 50 of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 the Commission has examined that application and concluded that it fulfils the conditions laid down in that Regulation.

(3) In order to allow for the submission of notices of opposition in accordance with Article 51 of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012, the single document and the reference to the publication of the product specification referred to in Article 50(2)(a) of that Regulation for the name ‘Džiugas’ should be published in the

Official Journal of the European Union

,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Sole Article

The single document and the reference to the publication of the product specification referred to in Article 50(2)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 for the name ‘Džiugas’ (PGI) are contained in the Annex to this Decision.

In accordance with Article 51 of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012, the publication of this Decision shall confer the right to oppose to the registration of the name referred to in the first paragraph of this Article within three months from the date of publication of this Decision in the

Official Journal of the European Union

.

Done at Brussels, 16 January 2019.

For the Commission

Phil HOGAN

Member of the Commission

(1)  

OJ L 343, 14.12.2012, p. 1

.

ANNEX

SINGLE DOCUMENT

‘DŽIUGAS’

EU No: PGI-LT-02372 — 6.11.2017

PDO ( ) PGI ( X )

1.   

Name(s)

‘Džiugas’

2.   

Applicant country(ies)

Lithuania

3.   

Description of the agricultural product or foodstuff

3.1.   

Type of product

Class 1.3 Cheeses

3.2.   

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

‘Džiugas’ cheese is a medium-fat hard cheese made from cow's milk which has been standardised and pasteurised and curdled with enzymes, with the curd and cheese mass subsequently subjected to special processing and maturation. The cheese is made solely from cow's milk obtained during the grazing period, which gives long-maturing cheeses the best organoleptic and microbiological indicators.

Table 1. Organoleptic indicators of ‘Džiugas’ cheese

Table 2. Physical and chemical characteristics of ‘Džiugas’ cheese

3.3.   

Feed (for products of animal origin only) and raw materials (for processed products only)

— cow's milk obtained only during the grazing period (May to October); cows grazing at that time are not to be fed any supplementary feed;

— starter cultures of rod-shaped lactic acid bacteria (

Lactobacillus

) and thermophilic cocci bacteria (

Streptococcus

);

— a milk-coagulating protease-class enzyme of microbiological origin, obtained by cultivating the microfungus

Rhizomucor miehei

;

— common salt.

3.4.   

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

Preparation of the milk mixture, production of the whey starter, enzymatic coagulation of the milk mixture, processing of the curd and cheese grains and moulding, pressing, salting and maturation of the cheese all take place in the defined geographical area.

3.5.   

Specific rules concerning slicing, grating, packaging, etc. of the product the registered name refers to

— 3.6.   

Specific rules concerning labelling of the product the registered name refers to

— 4.   

Concise definition of the geographical area

The geographical area comprises Telšiai City civil parish, located in Telšiai District in the Samogitian Uplands of north-western Lithuania, and borders on the Ryškėnai, Degaičiai, Gadūnavas and Viešvėnai civil parishes of Telšiai District (Lithuania).

5.   

Link with the geographical area

‘Džiugas’ cheese's link with the geographical area is based on the product's good reputation, which is determined by the experience of local master cheese-makers in making and maturing this hard cheese.

‘Džiugas’ cheese is made in Telšiai City civil parish, where a hill fort known as Džiugo kalnas is located. According to ancient legend, the mound is named in honour of Džiugas, a Samogitian warlord. It was believed that the secret of Džiugas' strength was a cheese kept in the cellar of his farmhouse, giving him extraordinary powers when consumed.

Historically cottage cheeses were produced in Lithuania using only lactic acid bacteria to curdle the milk. In Žemaitija (Samogitia), north-western Lithuania, however, farmer's wives also knew how to make fermented cheeses using dried calf stomach. The ‘Alka’ Samogitian museum established in Telšiai has wooden cheese moulds on display used by farmers' wives to produce fermented cheeses. 18th century chronicles mention that the Samogitians knew how to make cheese with a distinctive taste, aroma, consistency and appearance. The book

Didžioji Virėja

, published by the Sakala publishing house in Klaipėda in 1936, contains a recipe for a home-made hard cheese which is matured for one or two years.

When the diocese of Telšiai was established in 1926, the town of Telšiai became the capital of the ethnographical and historical region of Žemaitija, and is now the region's spiritual, cultural, artistic and scientific hub. It is therefore precisely to this town that the region's best master craftspeople in all fields have long flocked.

Cheeses and other dairy products have long been important for the nutrition of the region's inhabitants. Cheeses have been produced industrially in the region since the beginning of the 20th century. For Samogitians, the road to hard cheese production has been a long one. The first dairy began operating in Telšiai in 1924, but it was only in 1985 that experimental production of the hard cheese that would form the basis for ‘Džiugas’ began in a newly built production plant. The quantity of the cheese produced began to increase as of 1994, with new technical manuals and specifications being drawn up. The scale of cheese production has varied considerably between different periods. Production has increased markedly since 2006, and the trend persists to this day. Around 10 000 tonnes of hard cheese are produced every year. The increase in the volume of production stems from the export of ‘Džiugas’ cheese to Denmark, Finland, Italy and other countries. It is the best-known and most widely purchased hard cheese in Lithuania.

It is the unique skills of local master craftspeople that helped create a product that is characteristic of this area. One 4 kg cheese wheel requires around 60 litres of cow's milk obtained during the grazing period. It is this milk which gives the long-maturing cheeses the best organoleptic and microbiological indicators. As part of the cheese-making process, it is very important to ensure an optimal ratio of

Lactobacillus

to

Streptococcus

bacteria in the whey-grown productive starter. The productive starter is obtained from a prepared fermentation starter (the whey is fermented using a dry frozen starter). This productive starter can be grown as many as five times. Each subsequent productive starter is fermented by the previously prepared one. Each productive starter prepared from the whey must have the requisite ratio of

Lactobacillus

to

Streptococcus

bacteria. While the productive starters are growing, the ratio between the bacterial cultures may diverge slightly from what is required. Therefore experienced cheese-makers, in seeking to maintain a constant ratio of one bacterial culture to the other, regulate the pasteurisation of the productive starter (whey) and the time the process takes. In addition, the whey starter (whey) is pasteurised manually rather than automatically, by regulating heating or cooling valves.

A very important stage in the production of ‘Džiugas’ cheese is maturation, which is also very dependent on the cheese-makers' savoir-faire. During maturation, ‘Džiugas’ cheese is positioned vertically in special containers on round, continuously rotating rods. To ensure that the lateral surfaces of the cheese are smooth and evenly dry, as the moisture content of the whole cheese wheel decreases, ‘Džiugas’ cheese is rotated manually roughly 60 ° every three days. Therefore, by the end of the maturation phase, the cheese has been rotated 360 °, thus ensuring that the qualitative indicators of ‘Džiugas’ cheese remain constant. Thanks to the savoir-faire of local cheese-makers, ‘Džiugas’ cheese is distinguished by its special characteristics, which have also determined its good reputation.

The good reputation of ‘Džiugas’ cheese is based on: (1) a plethora of awards won in Lithuania and around the world; (2) its having become a symbolic Lithuanian food product, as it is often offered as a gift to foreign guests; (3) awareness of the cheese stems not only from its gustatory qualities, but also from the active development of educational activities and the promotion of a culture of cheese consumption.

Between 1998 and 2017, the cheese won a total of 51 awards, several of which are worth mentioning. The cheese was recognised and awarded the title of product of the year in Lithuania for the first time in 1998, winning a gold medal at the ‘AgroBalt'99’ international exhibition the following year. An annual contest has been organised since 2009 to identify the most popular product. In this contest, nominees in various categories are distinguished according to consumer choice and sales in the majority of retail chains in the country, and on the basis of quality criteria. ‘Džiugas’ cheese has already been awarded the top prize and recognised as most popular product of the year for the sixth consecutive year.

The cheese won its first gold medal at an international exhibition at ‘Prodexpo’ in Russia in 2005, a feat it repeated at the same exhibition in 2008, 2010 and 2014. It was awarded a certificate for being the most popular product at the specialised international exhibition ‘Peterfood-2010’ in St Petersburg. In the Superior Taste Award food- and beverage-tasting competition organised by the International Taste and Quality Institute (iTQi) in Brussels in 2011, the cheese was awarded two stars, following this up with the same result in 2013, but in 2014 a 36-month-matured ‘Džiugas’ cheese was for the first time given the highest possible rating: three out of a possible three gold stars. In 2015 and 2016 the cheese again collected three gold stars, leading to its obtaining a CRYSTAL TASTE AWARD, conferred only on products which have earned three out of a possible three gold stars for three years in a row.

‘Džiugas’ was awarded a gold medal at ‘Goldener Preis — 2011’ in Germany, at the International Cheese Awards in the UK in 2012, and at World Food 2012 that same year in Moscow. The cheese was awarded the SIAL Innovation Grand Prix diploma at the SIAL CHINA international food product exhibition in 2013. The 24-month-matured ‘Džiugas’ hard cheese was recognised as the best product at the 18th international ‘EuroGastro’ fair in Poland in 2014. The International Certification Association ICERTIAS, based in Switzerland, accorded ‘Džiugas’ the ‘Best Buy Award’ for 2015 and the 36-month-matured cheese was awarded a diploma at the ‘Premio Roma 2017’.

Because of its singular taste, ‘Džiugas’ cheese has become one of Lithuania's symbolic food products, often taken as a tasty gift to friends and business partners in foreign countries or to relatives who have moved there. The cheese is given as a gift by the President of Lithuania to leaders of foreign countries. In 2013, President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė congratulated German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her victory in the Bundestag elections, presenting her with a Lithuanian ‘Džiugas’ cheese. An article in

Stilius

magazine on 15 October 2013 gave a positive assessment of the reception of Žemaitija's ‘Džiugas’ cheese in Germany, whilst an article published in the newspaper

Lietuvos rytas

on 3 May 2014 mentioned that the global reputation of ‘Džiugas’ cheese obliges its producers to maintain consistent product quality. ‘Džiugas’ cheese is described as the ‘king’ of hard cheeses, and is a particular favourite among consumers. In its edition of 1 September 2016, the newspaper

Draugas

expressed delight that the Lithuanian cheese ‘Džiugas’ can already be found on tables in the USA. An article in the newspaper Lietuvos rytas of 28 January 2017 described how guests are treated to the cheese at Lithuanian embassies abroad. ‘Džiugas’ cheese promotes Lithuania throughout the world. An article discusses the award the cheese received in Brussels and mentions that ‘Džiugas’ is the first Lithuanian cheese to have found appreciation in Asia. An article in

Lietuvos rytas

on 18 March 2017 states that ‘Džiugas’ is the most highly rated cheese in Lithuania because of its exceptional taste characteristics, typical of it alone.

A description of ‘Džiugas’ can also be found in

Good cheese 2013-2014

, a magazine devoted to cheeses, and in a book published in 2015 on cheeses from around the world (Dorling Kindersley Ltd,

World Cheese Book

, 2015, p. 352).

At the beginning of the grazing season in May, when production of ‘Džiugas’ cheese also begins, a ‘Džiugas Day’ festival is held in Telšiai, where a special committee assesses the organoleptic properties of cheese made a year ago and matured for 12 months. Cheeses which have been matured for longer may also be sampled and their colour, taste, texture and other properties compared.

In 2013, ‘Džiugas’ Houses [‘Džiugas’ namai] were established in Telšiai, Vilnius and Klaipėda, where cheese tasting sessions and educational programmes are organised. These tastings have already been attended by around 13 000 people. In 2016, a ‘Džiugas’ House also became home to a ‘Džiugas’ museum. The exhibition, set up on the ground floor, introduces visitors to the dairy industry as it was at various times in history, to dairy-product-making traditions in Žemaitija, and to the history of making the ‘Džiugas’ hard cheese. The ‘Džiugas’ House has already been operating in Žemaitija's capital for several years, and is one of the most popular attractions in Telšiai District. Information on the ‘Džiugas’ House as a place to visit can be found at the Samogitia Tourism Information Centre [VĮ Žemaitijos turizmo informacijos centras].

Reference to publication of the product specification

(the second subparagraph of Article 6(1) of this Regulation)

http://zum.lrv.lt/suris-dziugas-paraiska-su-produkto-specifikacija