The Bernese Tongue Sausage

is to the Bernese government more than Sausage. They want to protect this product. Demand for the product is growing, experts say.
It belongs on every Bernese plate and meat lovers lick their fingers for it: The Bernese Tongue Sausage is known nationwide. For more than two years, Berner butchers fought to make sure that the tongue sausage could only be produced in the Canton of Bern. They feared that wholesalers could move production abroad. Now the application has been approved by the Federal Office of Agriculture. “With the registration, limitations should be avoided in the future and both the good reputation and the excellent quality of this Bernese specialty should be protected,” writes the Confederation.

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The Tongue Sausage is one of the most famous specialties of the Canton of Bern. Unlike the name suggests, the sausage is not made of the tongue, but of two different types of bread.

More Popularity for the Tongue Sausage

Objections to the petition can be raised within three months. “I do not think that there will be headwinds from other Cantons,” says Adrian Gygax, butcher and board member of the meat trade association of the Canton of Bern. He led a working group that works to protect the sausage. “The difficulty was that you had to reconcile the different needs of the producers,” says Gygax. That did cost a lot of time.

The goal is now that the Tongue Sausage regains popularity.

“We want to market the sausage better; the protection is a side effect,” says Gygax. One wants to prevent the Bernese original from being made abroad.
As soon as the period of three months has expired and no complaints are received, the Tongue Sausage will be registered in the Swiss Handelsamtblatt as a geographically protected product. From then on, the sausage may only be produced in the Canton of Bern. The consumer should enjoy geographical protection: “This is guaranteed by the fact that we have a top product that comes from the region,” says Gygax.