Food is a very sensitive subject nowadays due to the risks associated to the chain of production, transport, selling and consumptions, and, also, to the necessity of assuring food products for all the inhabitants of the planet. The globalization put its finger print on food products, both on one produced in the industry and, also on one offered by the restaurants.
A part of the cultural heritage of a nation is the variety of traditional food, kept unchanged for generation to generation. Romania has some traditional ways to prepare food, characteristic for each region of the country and the tourists who tried once a traditional dish will come again to taste it. The Romanian trade and tourism used only a little part of the promotional value of its traditional food products to attract customers and tourists.
The European certification scheme for traditional food gives the possibility to obtain three types of certifications for traditional food products.
| Certification type | |
|---|---|
 |
The Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) is the name of an area, a specific place or, in exceptional cases, the name of a country used as a designation for an agricultural product or a foodstuff. The designation comes from such an area, place or country whose quality or properties are significantly or exclusively determined by the geographical environment, including natural and human factors, and whose production, processing and preparation takes place within the determined geographical area. In other words, to receive the PDO status, the entire product must be traditionally and entirely manufactured (prepared, processed and produced) within the specific region and thus acquire unique properties. |
 |
The Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) is the name of an area, a specific place or, in exceptional cases, the name of a country used as a description of an agricultural product or a foodstuff, which comes from such an area, place or country and has a specific quality, goodwill or other characteristic property attributable to its geographical origin. The production, processing or preparation takes place within the determined geographical area. In other words, to receive the PGI status, the entire product must be traditionally and at least partially manufactured (prepared, processed or produced) within the specific region and thus acquire unique properties. |
 |
The Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) quality scheme aims to provide a protection regime for traditional food products of specific character. Differing from PDO and PGI, this quality scheme does not certify that the protected food product has a link to specific geographical area. To qualify for a TSG a food must be of “specific character” and either its raw materials, production method or processing must be “traditional”. Under Art. 3 of Regulation 1151/12 “specific character” is defined as “the characteristic production attributes which distinguish a product clearly from other similar products of the same category.” Under Art. 3 of Regulation 1151/12 “traditional” is defined as “proven usage on the domestic market for a period that allows transmission between generations; this period is to be at least 30 years.” For a food name to be registrable under the TSG scheme it must (a) have been traditionally used to refer to the specific product; or (b) identify the traditional character or specific character of the product. |
The standards are based on the legal framework provided by the EU Regulation No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs. The Regulation (enforced within the EU and being gradually expanded internationally via bilateral agreements between the EU and non-EU countries) ensures that only products genuinely originating in that region can be identified as such in commerce. The purpose of the law is to protect the reputation of the regional foods, promote rural and agricultural activity, help producers obtain a premium price for their authentic products, and eliminate the unfair competition and misleading of consumers by non-genuine products, which may be of inferior quality or of different flavor.
If you want to view directly all the certified Romanian products you can do this anytime, anywhere, via the CPAC app. This application allows you to have a viewing list of all certified products, to visualize on the GPS map all food producers certified with the possibility of access and direct contact from the application, to search in the list of manufacturers' certificates according to various criteria, to filter products in a particular county or radius, depending on the type of certificate and product category, and to read the QR Code on any label for product details.
No comments:
Post a Comment