On 12 December 2024, the Italian Ministry of Agriculture announced the new rules established in Brussels for the classification of pig carcasses intended for the circuit of hams and other PDO ‘made in Italy’ cured meat products.
1) PDO hams and pig classification, the news
The PAFF Standing Committee (Plants, Animals, Food and Feed) approved by unanimous vote (Malta absent) the proposal for an implementing decision of the European Commission on the classification of pig carcasses in Italy.
‘This decision‘ – explains the Italian Ministry of Agriculture – ‘authorizes the use of new classification methods and updates the formulas for existing methods, ensuring a more precise assessment of lean meat content‘. (1)
Classification methods of pig carcasses, to be used in Italy starting from 1 February 2025, are therefore:
– Hennessy Grading Probe 7 (HGP 7)
– Fat-O-Meater II (FOM II)
– CSB Image Meater
– ZP Manual Method
– Zoomer.
2) ANAS, the serious admissions
ANAS, the National Association of Pig Breeders, already censured by the Antitrust Authority for conflict of interest, (2) commented on the new rules with some serious admissions.
‘The system in use since 2014 had some flaws:
– the results were not uniform across the different authorized instruments
– the carcass composition estimate did not consistently consider the thicknesses of subcutaneous fat and muscle, and
– ‘it is necessary to adopt artificial corrections to mitigate the impact on the waste of carcasses and legs destined for PDO circuits‘. (3)
3) ANAS and PDO Ham Consortia, what responsibilities?
The Guarantor Authority for Competition and the Market (AGCM, Antitrust), in its decision of 20.3.13 on ‘animal production discipline‘, found that ANAS ‘coordinated, through its representatives who had an important role within the Consortia’, the supervision ‘of the correct application of the PDO/PGI pig production specifications’. (4)
The same ANAS, in the press release 12.12.24, states however that the system in use since 2014 ‘had some flaws’, precisely illustrated (see paragraph 2 above), and that it was therefore necessary to ‘adopt artificial corrections‘. With the specific aim of admitting a greater number of pigs into the PDO hams circuit, even if they do not comply with the requirements of the specifications (5,6).
The National Association of Pig Breeders therefore states that the carcass classification system already validated, approved by the European Commission and applied in the last ten years has in fact been disapplied by the slaughterhouses that supply the circuit of Italian PDO hams. With evident awareness of ANAS itself, and of the protection Consortia.
4) Parma Ham PDO, 5 years without controls. The ministry’s responsibilities
It is emphasized that since 2019, the year in which the Parma Quality Institute (former control body for Prosciutto di Parma PDO) was closed, the Ministry of Agriculture has omitted controls on at least half of the slaughterhouses that adhere to the PDO pork supply chain. (7)
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests (MASAF) thus fails in its duties to verify the adequacy of the PDO control plans, with respect to the EU rules and the respective production specifications, with regard to:
– classification of pig carcasses, essential to guarantee the quality of Italian PDO hams;
– origin of feed from the defined geographical area, essential for the integration of supply chains in the territories. (8)
5) The control issue
The new rules on the classification of Italian pigs destined for the PDO circuit now offer an opportunity to turn the page and restore legality. A new control plan is needed, the execution of which should be entrusted to organizations above the fray.
Assigning controls on the classification of carcasses to the same bodies that carry out the certification of PDO products would in fact lead to a gigantic conflict of interest that does not appear admissible, even more so considering the precedents.
6) Provisional conclusions
The hams and the other Italian PDOs in the pork sector have been moved, for too many years now, on a crystal of rules made complex by the very Consortia for protection. They then find themselves in constant difficulty, together with the control bodies, to enforce (at least in appearance) their own specifications.
The judiciary would have good reason to investigate the existence of an associative crime, the material effects of which had already partly emerged in the ‘Prosciuttopoli 3’ which went unnoticed. (9) And they find confirmation, as well as relevance, in the serious admissions of ANAS cited above (see the previous paragraph 2). Under the complicit indifference of the ministry.
#VanghePulite
Dario Dongo
Cover from Overview – Hog Carcass Grading Grid. Fig. 7. Western Hog Exchange https://tinyurl.com/y7ute7sb
Footnote
(1) Approval of the Implementing Decision of the EU Commission for the Classification of Pig Carcasses in Italy. MASAF (Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests). Press release 12.12.24 https://tinyurl.com/2xwukmub
(2) Dario Dongo. Pig genetics PDO, Antitrust rejects conflicts of interest. #Clean shovels. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 12.6.22
(3) New estimation equations for the classification of heavy pig carcasses approved. ANAS (National Association of Pig Breeders). Press release 12.12.24 https://tinyurl.com/mr26erkn
(4) Antitrust. AS 1036 – Animal production regulation. Decision 20.3.13, in Bulletin of 20 March 2013, publ. in Boll 13/2013, pages 20-22 https://tinyurl.com/ybjj75r5
(5) ‘In fact, by applying the corrective coefficient of 1,6%, approximately 70% of the thighs that would otherwise be excluded because they were classified as E are recovered.’, noted Andrea Rossi, expert of the Centro Ricerche Produzioni Animali SpA, on 29.10.15 in Cremona, in his presentation ‘Thighs for PDO. Can the selection criteria change?’ https://tinyurl.com/457x87wd
(6) A broader exposition of the context is offered in the article by Andrea Rossi. Carcass classification, an open debate. Pig farming, September 2015 https://tinyurl.com/4ne4te53
(7) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Pig market, mystery about the classification of PDO carcasses. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 11.3.21
(8) Dario Dongo. PDO Parma ham, what are the controls on certification? GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 23.11.24
(9) See paragraph 1.4 (Prosciuttopoli 3?) in the article by Dario Dongo. Parma and San Daniele PDO hams, high yield or superior quality? The great chaos. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 28.8.21
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
