Research & Development
Technical and scientific assistance to improve production technologies
Since its origins, the Consortium has offered its members technical and scientific assistance to improve production technologies, as a guarantee from a hygienic-sanitary point of view and to better qualify production from an organoleptic point of view.
The Consortium continuously engages in projects in close collaboration with the most important Italian research institutes (CREA – ZA of Lodi, Università Cattolica Sacro Cuore of Piacenza among others), to develop activities that contribute to a better understanding of the production process, promote improvement in the most critical phases and bring about significant progress in the production and maturing techniques of Provolone Valpadana.
The effort produced by the Consortium is not limited to production and maturing, but also includes environmental and energy aspects. It is thus possible for interested producers to have the Provolone Valpadana produced acquire the “Made Green in Italy” certification which, thanks to the adoption and compliance with the so-called Product Category Rules (RCP), constitutes the first real official method for measuring the company's environmental sustainability.
Still in the “sustainability” field, the Consortium is currently involved in a project aimed at measuring energy consumption along the entire supply chain, from the field, to the cattle breeding, to the production in the dairy, up to the product placed on sale and consumed.
In this section you can find some projects of which the Consortium has been a promoter and protagonist:
TEM.PRO.
The “Temperatura Provolone Valpadana (TEM.PRO.)” project was created in relation to the need, expressed by producers, to be able to rely on a raw material that is “richer” in lactic-like cheese microflora, verifying its effects, in different thermal storage conditions, on the hygienic quality, chemical-physical, compositional and nutritional characteristics of both the milk and the cheeses obtained.
Through a careful evaluation of the process, the temperature limits required both in the collection and storage phases of raw milk were verified. By intervening on the thermal cycle, positive effects on the recovery of a cheese-like microbial flora were demonstrated, without compromising the hygienic health quality of milk and cheese, in compliance with food safety criteria.
Furthermore, this change also has a positive impact on the sustainability of the supply chain, both for a reduction in company energy costs and for a more rational management of collection, avoiding duplication of storage.
The positive outcome of the research allowed for a change to be made to the specifications, which became operational during 2023.
Made Green in Italy
The program for compliance with the rules defined in the ministerial program called “Made Green in Italy” aims to promote Italian products with good/excellent environmental performance (guaranteed by a scientifically defined system) and aims, with the adoption of a specific logo, to make the products recognizable for consumers, thus encouraging more informed choices.
The quantification of a product's environmental performance, in fact, based on a complete PEF (Product Environmental Footprint) study, verified and validated by an independent third party, provides for three performance classes: A (value higher than the benchmark); B (value close to the benchmark); C (value lower than the benchmark). Only products in class A and those in class B obtain the use of the logo (in exchange for a commitment by the company to improve its performance).
The significant potential of the scheme, in terms of supporting the “green” competitive capabilities of Italian companies, lies in the fact that the MGI scheme represents an absolute novelty in the scenario of environmental certification available to corporate marketing strategies, as:
- it is the only certification capable of combining the dimension of the environmental performance of products, throughout their value chain, with the dimension of “made in Italy”, linked to the excellence of the national production system;
- it is the first and only certification of institutional and public nature based on the above-mentioned European PEF methodology, implemented by a national government that has chosen to fully adopt the European calculation rules, on which it has however grafted further and more ambitious national environmental quality requirements, capable of distinguishing Italian production;
- It is the only certification to mix and integrate requirements that require companies adhering to the scheme to communicate the environmental footprint of their products to their customers and consumers (typical of type 3 Labels, regulated by ISO 14025), with requirements that allow access to the scheme only to excellent products, capable of exceeding performance thresholds and, in particular, of being better than the average representative product of their category (typical of type 1 Labels, regulated by ISO 14024).
The Product Category Rules (RCP) for Provolone Valpadana have therefore been drawn up, approved by the competent Ministry, to refer to in order to obtain this prestigious recognition.
This opens up significant opportunities for national producers who intend to take advantage of this new tool, which straddles environmental policy and corporate marketing.
With.Pro.Va.
The project links the knowledge, management and valorisation of the agronomic potential of a territory to the production of a typical product such as Provolone Valpadana, thanks to the creation of a digital platform for the shared use of data related to company agronomic practices, which can be updated and analysed in real time, which allows the valorisation of the agronomic sustainability of the companies belonging to the supply chain of this product (farms, dairy producer and Protection Consortium).
The progress of the technical data of each company will be monitored through statistical process control charts, to define priorities and times of technical intervention to support the companies themselves.
The above is achieved through the creation of a relational database in which the data characterizing the land, on which the primary activity and the adopted agronomic practices insist, as well as the consumption data of the process in the dairy can be consulted in real time to provide maximum utility, generating information at each of the different levels of the supply chain.
The sustainability of the supply chain also derives from the economic sustainability of each of its components. In this way, environmental sustainability can be monitored and assessed in its individual components; from the data of the agronomic and zootechnical management of each individual farm it will therefore be possible to estimate the degree of environmental sustainability of individual farms and of the production system as a whole, referring, of course, to Provolone Valpadana DOP.
FAP
The activities, carried out in close collaboration with CREA – ZA of Lodi, will have as their objective the evaluation of the microbiological and hygienic quality of the cheese and the production lines, in order to detect and quantify any gas-producing microbiota that can be traced back to the origin of a defect in the paste, consisting of an abnormal accumulation of gas in Provolone Valpadana DOP cheese, especially of the 'mild' type but, even if occasionally, of the 'spicy' product. Through on-site inspections and careful study of all the transformation phases, the aim will also be to identify possible critical points in the process predisposing the occurrence of anomalous fermentations, the cause of the defect, in order to contain or minimize its effects.
The product under study will be Provolone Valpadana DOP, 20 kg forms, sweet type produced with pasteurised milk (minimum maturation 30 days) and spicy type produced with raw milk (minimum maturation 90 days).
The program started in early October of the current year 2023 and is expected to end by December 2024.
CI PVP
The research project, defined in agreement with the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Piacenza – Cremona branch – aims to highlight the differences at the microbiological, nutritional, metabolomic and sensorial level of both the sweet and spicy Provolone Valpadana DOP from the various companies associated with the Consortium.
To achieve this objective, samples of sweet Provolone Valpadana and samples of spicy Provolone Valpadana of the following formats and ages will be analyzed in duplicate:
- sweet type: 4/6 kg pancetta at 30 and 60 days
- spicy type: salamis from 25/35 kg at 180 and 240 days
The analyses that will be performed on the different samples at the pre-established times will be microbiological, chemical-nutritional and metabolomic.
Sensory analyses will also be carried out on the samples taken, taking into account the characteristics of the cheese such as sight, touch, smell, flavour, consistency in the mouth, aroma and hedonic level.
The results will be available at the end of the summer of 2024.
