Division 4.6 Link:

Salame Cremona is a very well-known product with a long-established reputation, as is clear from its traditional presence in agricultural and food fairs in the Po valley, and its wide distribution on the major national and international markets, which itself justifies the application for it to be recognised as a protected geographical indication. This is confirmed by the appearance of Salame Cremona on lists of the main agri-food products with designation of Italian origin, in annexes on the protection of geographical designations of origin to bilateral agreements between Italy and other European countries (Germany, France, Austria, Spain) from the 1950s to the 1970s.

The production of salame is very closely linked with local pig breeding establishments, which go back to Roman times. Salame Cremona is also closely connected with its environment, resulting from the growth, first in the Cremona area and then across the whole Po river plain, of pig-breeding alongside cheese-making and maize-growing.

The excellent synergy between traditional production methods and the area in question, which is characterised by a climate prone to fog and not too windy, gives Salame Cremona its unique — and thus distinctive — softness, tenderness and spicy aroma.

The production area has soils typical of alluvial regions and has been used for pig raising for many centuries, first on family farms and then on an increasingly commercial scale. The production area is made up of very uniform countryside in this part of the Po plain: completely flat, crossed by rivers and canals and marked by crop products, particularly grassland and maize. Throughout the production area autumns and winters are fairly harsh, and very wet and foggy, while springs are mild and rainy and in summers there are quite high temperatures and frequent short, and very often heavy, rainy periods.

However, all this would not have been enough to produce the distinctive quality necessary for Salame Cremona without the human factor: over time, highly specific techniques of preparation and maturing of salame have been perfected in the production area.

Even today, Salame Cremona is produced according to processes that fully respect tradition, whilst applying new production technology.

The environmental factor (the climate) and the human factor (the highly specialised technical capacity of the various groups of skilled workers producing Salame Cremona), are still nowadays basic and irreplaceable in the specificity and reputation of the product.

The main historical records, clearly and precisely mentioning the origin of the product and its link with the region, go back to 1231 and are preserved in the Cremona official archives. They confirm the existence of trade in pigs and meat products between the Cremona region and neighbouring states. Documents from the time of the Renaissance that are included in the ‘litterarum’ and the ‘fragmentorum’ bear irrefutable testimony to the presence, but above all the importance, of ‘sausage’ in the production area identified in the specification. Accounts of the visit of bishop Cesare Speciano (1599-1606) to convents in the region mention that it was customary to distribute a certain quantity of sausage on ‘days when meat was eaten’.

Still today, Salame Cremona plays an increasingly important role in the main agri-food fairs in Lombardy and the Po valley. Socio-economic sources refer to the presence of a number of producers specialising in the processing of pork who established themselves throughout the Po plain because this activity so perfectly complements the dairy and cheese industry and cereal (mainly maize) production.