Half way through the XIV century Giovanni Boccaccio cites the use of Parmesan cheese to flavour maccheroni and ravioli in the land of the ‘Bengodi’, or the people who know how to live well, thus sanctioning its use and notoriety which has come down to us.
Parma - Museum of Food
The Consortium of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, begun in 1934 in Reggio-Emilia brought together the cheese producers working in the provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Mantova and Bologna which constitutes the typical production zone.
The quality of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is the excellent and well-balanced result of many factors, from the particular quality of pasturelands and milk, to the artisan techniques of production, unchanged for seven centuries, to natural ripening and maturing processes, a total absence of preservatives, additives, anti-fermenting agents or colourants, together with the rigorous quality controls effected by the Consortium.
The Consortium, in fact, defends and safeguards both the production and commerce of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, as well as use of the name; it promotes all initiatives aimed at safeguarding the typicity and characteristics of the product, it diffuses information about the product and how to use it, thus encouraging sales; it also guarantees the quality of the cheese, the excellence of the taste and its nutritional properties.
The Consortium, which is a non profit making organisation, has also been charged with the important and delicate task of placing branding marks and quality tags on the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses which ensure conformity to quality standards required in the DPR 1269 of 30th October 1955 and vigilance over production and commerce of the product.
Parma - Museum of Food
The Consortium brings together about 500 small artisan producers in the typical geographical production zone (they in turn represent about 6000 milk producing breeders) who have obtained recognition under the law of their determination to maintain unaltered the centuries old way of producing cheese and its high level of quality. It is, in fact, thanks to the Consortium that the guarantees of genuine Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese can be considered absolute with precise norms (for example 16 litres of high grade milk are required to produce I kg of cheese) which are applied with rigorous self discipline and checks in order to obtain a product of extremely high quality. In this way Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese reaches our tables, both as a precious complement to a tasty dish of pasta or a nutritious and easily digested element in the diet of the sportsman and woman, but, in any case a basic ingredient for many dishes in Italian cuisine, from the preparation of meat and vegetables, to pies and sauces.
Parmigiano-Reggiano has been awarded the mark of DOP or Denomination of Protected Origin by the European community.
With thanks to
The Museum of Parmigiano-Reggiano:
c/o Corte Castellazzi,
Via Volta, 5
Soragna (Parma)