The brands
The Provolone Valpadana DOP brand is a cockade: a yellow shape on a green background
The trademark that distinguishes Provolone Valpadana is the cockade, attached to the string that supports the form. The same logo is also visible on all the product packaging on sale.
The absolute guarantee of product quality and safety against any form of counterfeiting.
It's the Consortium the voluntary body that protects the brand and verifies its conformity for sale. It is the story of men and their intention to come together in the name of the Provolone Valpadana DOP.
Men are the ones in charge of the dairies where the cheese was and is made and the farmers who obtained and continue to obtain the necessary milk from their cows.
Like all true, real, lived stories, it wasn't exactly a walk in the park, because bringing together so many minds, we know, is not easy. But the men of Provolone Valpadana succeeded and ahead of many producers of other cheeses, convinced that only compact and united can one build.
Only the collaboration between the producers has allowed us to reach an agreement to best protect Provolone Valpadana
From the 50s to 78
The belief was already there when, in the mid-1950s, Provolone (which was still only called that) was recognized as a “typical cheese”.
The question of the production area was controversial at the time (potentially it was all of Italy, but in reality the producers were concentrated between Lombardy, Emilia and Veneto), and the so-called productive polymorphism of Provolone also aroused hesitation, as, in fact, it can have very different formats
- salami
- like melon
- truncated cone
- pear-shaped
- flask-shaped (pear-shaped with a spherical head on top)
and a variety of weights and sizes (from a few hundred grams to over 100 kilos).
The first turning point came in 1975, the year in which the producers of the Po Valley area decided to become members of a single organization, the Consortium for the Protection of Cheese, unlike what had happened for other Lombard cheeses.
From 1978 to today
Three years later, in 1978, the Consortium was officially given the task of supervising, meaning that from that moment on it was the one supervising all the producers who were part of it, but also the non-associated companies, to ensure that they respected the rules of the game and produced a Provolone according to the agreed standard.
In 1993 the denomination of origin “Provolone Valpadana DOC” was recognized and, the greatest gratification, on 21 June 1996 the European Union recognized Provolone Valpadana with the Protected Designation of Origin, returning it to the ranks of DOP cheeses. with its versions mild and spicy cheese.
For the then Consorzio Tutela Provolone another task began: the protection of the product and its defense from imitations, frauds, counterfeits. From that moment on, nothing that might seem like Provolone could replace the one produced in Valpadana. And to assure us of the authentic Provolone Valpadana DOP, a rosette with the Consorzio di tutela brand: on a green background, a yellow shape and the number of the producing dairy.
Since 2002, the name of the Consortium has also been renewed: it has become Consorzio Tutela Provolone Valpadana with new and qualifying functions to improve and protect the cheese.
The DOP brand is associated with that of Provolone Valpadana
The symbol of Provolone Valpadana itself, on the forms is accompanied by the DOP mark, which is independent of the Consortium and is regulated by law. The red rosette on a yellow background identifies all those products with Protected Designation of Origin.
This acronym means that all stages of the product's production must take place within a specific geographical area.
Furthermore, the production process must comply with the standards defined by the relevant specification.
The recognition of the DOP trademark is regulated by law: the Ministry of Agricultural and Food Policies and forestry provides a complete list of products that can boast the recognition.
