Safety and quality
Safety and quality for the realization of Provolone Valpadana P.D.O.: for us who care about our health
What do we think the quality of a cheese is?
Its goodness, certainly, the nutritional capacity, which we, as consumers, value so much, but certainly also the safety and quality of the manufacturing process, which means hygiene and health for all of us.
In short, what we want is that the cheese we eat is made well, in clean environments, by experienced people, able to catch on the fly and fight all possible pollution.
The EU’s commitment
For years, the European Union has made food safety one of its crusades, and so the Member States have become one in wanting to guarantee their citizens against food that is adulterated and unhygienic.
The protection of health first of all, they declare the various regulations, food codes, packages of good hygiene practice, and this philosophy has been fully embraced by the Consorzio Tutela Provolone Valpadana.
The producers
This is how the cheesemakers and all the operators of the dairies and those who, until the sale, put theirs in the Provolone Valpadana have declared war on the possible hygienic-sanitary dangers that even unintentionally would create imbalances in the cheese and perhaps risks to our health.
The key lies in the responsibility assumed by each person who produces, manipulates, transports and packages Provolone Valpadana.
Thanks to Europe and its precepts, these people have known how to do this for years, because they have married more than a work programme that teaches them how to avoid dangerous mistakes and ensure safety and quality.
The most important of all is the HACCP system, an acronym that may impress the unfamiliar, but which is well known to those who work in food factories and which teaches them to recognise all the cases and times when, in each job, the cheese could be spoiled and the seriousness of the risk of this happening.
Regulations
Then there are regulations such as the HACCP manual which indicate how to make each piece of cheese “traceable”, so that all the stages can be reconstructed backwards, from the shopping counter to the milk with which it was made, so as not to lose track of any failures.
With these guides, how can you not rest calmly? More than quiet, because, on closer inspection, as well as knowing with certainty where and how to prevent any criticalities, those who make Provolone Valpadana are not spared by frequent and impassable inspections.
So “self-control” and “checks” (also official, by competent organizations that certify quality) are watchwords for those who want to do well.
And now those who make Provolone Valpadana have an important guide at their disposal: the “Manual of correct operative practice”, which explains how to produce a safe and healthy cheese.
