The meeting entitled “ Innovative solutions for the improvement of production technologies of Valtellina Casera DOP in the process of revising the specifications (SIMCA) ”, promoted by the Consorzio Tutela Valtellina Casera e Bitto , was held today at the headquarters of Confindustria Lecco and Sondrio.
The SIMCA project , co-financed by the Lombardy Region “PSR 2014/2020 operation 16.201 Pilot project and development of innovation”, conducted in collaboration with the University of Milan , the Institute of Agricultural Biology and Biotechnology and the Institute of Food Production Sciences of the CNR, has evaluated over 450 samples in two years, carrying out more than 25 sessions of analytical and sensory tests. The results confirm the total absence of lactose and galactose, a good presence of various nutritional elements and the strong potential to further improve the quality of Valtellina Casera DOP . A stable and continuously growing production with over 230,000 forms per year.
“Today we have come to the end of two years of intense experimental work, a unique experience for our sector,” said Marco Deghi, President of the Consorzio Tutela Valtellina Casera e Bitto . “In the past, we have often relied on traditional practices, without systematically examining the phenomena underlying production. Today, however, we wanted to go into greater detail, studying: the transformation processes, the characteristics of the milk, the production variables and the innovations that have influenced the history of this cheese over the last 25 years. This is a new approach, which combines tradition with an important scientific basis, necessary and fundamental to address the project to modify the specification with solid evidence.”
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The Consortium for the Protection of Bitto and Valtellina Casera Cheeses has been operating since 1995 in the province of Sondrio to defend the uniqueness of the two Valtellina DOP cheeses , protect them from any imitation and promote them on the national and international market. And it does so thanks to a series of scrupulous controls on the entire supply chain. The members of the Consortium, who belong to the two production chains, are 165 including breeders, producers and seasoners, small and large livestock companies, local dairies and modern cheese factories. Since 1996, Valtellina Casera and Bitto have obtained the DOP: their production follows rhythms, knowledge and very precise rules dictated by the production specifications, to guarantee the origin and uniqueness of these cheeses. The certifying body to guarantee the consumer has been the CSQA of Thiene since 1998 .
Source: SondrioToday