It's Fontina
if it expresses the historicity of the territory, respecting good processing practices
Here's what we did!
The activities of the Typicalp project aimed at controlling and improving the quality of Fontina DOP, being careful to preserve the savoir-faire of tradition but, at the same time, stimulating producers to make small but substantial changes in the production process, to optimize and perfect production, further enhancing the historical characteristics of a unique product in the world.
The objective was then to succeed in explaining, in an objective and scientific way, what makes the production of
this cheese unique, its added value and the indispensable link with the extraordinary surrounding environment.
To do this, we monitored the entire Fontina DOP supply chain for more than 4 years.
We carried out technical interventions and technology implementation interventions in the production chain, we analyzed the raw material in the laboratory and we trained a tasting panel for sensory analysis with the future objective of characterizing the cheese through aroma mapping.
1/ Technical support to processing companies
through sharing good practices for livestock management and the entire transformation production process and experimentation with innovative techniques and technologies to improve product quality.
2/ Quality control from milk to finished product
through microbiological analyses of vat raw milk (in collaboration with the milk laboratory of the Agriculture Department, Livestock structure, dairy productions and laboratories of the Autonomous Region of Valle d'Aosta), cheese-making intermediates at different stages of cheese ripening and the finished product, with the aim of verifying the hygienic-sanitary quality of freshly milked milk and cheeses as well as the good practices adopted in cheese-making technology and processing environments.
3/ Attention to animal welfare
through the use of new parameters including the study of differential somatic cell fractions for a more precise analysis of animal health conditions. A fundamental screening tool for identifying intramammary infections and the consequent more careful and attentive use of antimicrobials.
4/ Attention to consumer welfare
through new analytical methods that determined qualitative and nutraceutical aspects of the product and by-product of the supply chain: whey.
Fontina DOP is Valle d'Aosta
precisely because it captures the essence of the Aosta Valley territory, that essence
that we know well and want to defend.
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