Parmigiano-Reggiano - How to achieve sustainable food production for increased profit and well-being

Parmesan cheese has a lot of health benefits

Parmigiano-Reggiano is an Italian hard, granular cheese produced from cow’s milk and aged at least 12 months.

It is named after the producing areas, the provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, the part of Bologna west of the Reno, and Modena (all in Emilia-Romagna); and the part of Mantua (Lombardy) on the right/south bank of the Po. Parmigiano is the Italian adjective for Parma and Reggiano that for Reggio Emilia.

Both “Parmigiano-Reggiano” and “Parmesan” are protected designations of origin (PDO) for cheeses produced in these provinces under Italian and European law. Outside the EU, the name “Parmesan” can legally be used for similar cheeses, with only the full Italian name unambiguously referring to PDO Parmigiano-Reggiano.

The Difference Between Parmesan and Parmigiano-Reggiano

Parmigiano-Reggiano is a hard, dry cheese made from skimmed or partially skimmed cow’s milk. It has a hard pale-golden rind and a straw-colored interior with a rich, sharp flavor. Parmigiano-Reggianos are aged at least two years. Parmesan cheese labeled stravecchio has been aged three years, while stravecchiones are four or more years old.

Their complex flavor and extremely granular texture are a result of the long aging. Parmigiano-Reggiano has been called the “King of Cheeses” and Italians don’t just slap this phrase on any old cheese. There are criteria that have to be followed.

illustration showing differences between parmigiano-reggiano and parmesan

What Makes a Cheese Parmigiano-Reggiano?

The words Parmigiano-Reggiano stenciled on the rind mean that the cheese was produced in Italy in one of the following areas: Bologna, Mantua, Modena, or Parma (from which the name of this cheese originated).

Under Italian law, only cheese produced in these provinces may be labeled “Parmigiano-Reggiano,” and European law classifies the name, as well as the translation “Parmesan,” as a protected designation of origin.

In Italy, DOC (Denominazione di Origine controllata) laws are meant to preserve the integrity of traditional Italian food products by ensuring the flavor and quality. So within the European Union, per DOC regulations, Parmesan and Parmigiano-Reggiano are the same cheese.

Parmesan Cheese

Parmesans are primarily used for grating and in Italy are termed grana, meaning “grain,” referring to their granular textures. Within Italy, cheeses like Parmigiano-Reggiano are also called grana. Many of these cheeses are delicious in their own right. An example is the cheese Grana Padano.

The name Parmigiano is used in parts of Italy for grana cheeses that don’t meet the protected designation of origin requirements for Parmigiano-Reggiano, such as specific areas of production, what the cattle eat, lengthy aging and so on.

A wheel of parmesan cheese can cost over $1,000. A single wheel takes at least one year to age, 131 gallons of milk to make, and it can only be made in a restricted area in northern Italy, in the region of Emilia Romagna. We visited a dairy in Parma, Italy to find out how the cheese is made and why it is so expensive.

Most Parmesan Cheeses In America Are Fake, Here’s Why

It's easy to tell real Parmigiano-Reggiano when you can see a piece of the rind, because it is... [+] embossed with its name over and over. — It’s easy to tell real Parmigiano-Reggiano when you can see a piece of the rind, because it is embossed with its name over it.

My last column was full of praise for Parmigiano-Reggiano. This great cheese is worthy of all that praise: it is very natural, very healthy, very delicious and very consistent. It is wonderful by itself in chunks, shaved over or grated into foods, cooked or uncooked. It has been so good at doing so many things for so long – over 800 years – that it has earned the nickname in the dairy industry, “The King of Cheeses.”

But there is one big problem. As good as the cheese is, and as famous as it is, you rarely actually get to eat it – even when you think you are. The English translation of the cheese is Parmesan, and when you buy it in England you get Parmigiano-Reggiano. It’s the law. The American translation is also Parmesan, but when you buy it here, you could be getting almost anything – except usually Parmigiano-Reggiano.

I noted in my last column that by law, Parmigiano-Reggiano is allowed to contain only three very simple ingredients: milk (produced in the Parma/Reggio region and less than 20 hours from cow to cheese), salt, and rennet (a natural enzyme from calf intestine). Three other ingredients, Cellulose Powder, Potassium Sorbate, and Cheese Cultures are not found in Parmigiano-Reggiano – they are completely illegal in its production. Yet all three are in Kraft 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese (I’m not sure if that means it is supposed to be 100% “parmesan” or simply 100% grated, which it certainly is). It’s far enough from the real thing that Kraft was legally forced to stop selling its cheese labeled Parmesan in Europe.

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Washington Post

Parmesan from Wisconsin? How dairy you?! Italy wants to reclaim its cheese.

ROME — The investigators say they have a duty to defend Italy’s national interests, and so they spend their days in a discreetly marked government office, scanning the Internet for dubious activity, trying to thwart one threat after the next.

In other words, they are on the lookout for fake cheese.

“This looks like the fishiest thing ever,” one of the food investigators, Domenico Vona, said this month after some Internet sleuthing led him to an “Italian parmesan” made in Ukraine.

Vona studied the product details of the deep yellow vacuum-packed hunks.

“This is blatant,” he said as he filed a complaint to the online marketplace, Alibaba, where it was being sold. “This is definitely not Parmigiano.”

If Italy had its way, there would be no such thing as Ukrainian parmesan. Or American parmesan. In fact, there would be no generic parmesan whatsoever — only Parmigiano-Reggiano, produced inside a small patch of Italian countryside, under exacting specifications, at one of 330 dairies whose cheese wheels are tested with percussion hammers and then branded with markings of authenticity if they pass muster.

taly is doing what it can to reclaim its signature cheese, as well as other mimicked food and alcohol products, in a campaign combining old food traditions and some new nationalistic sentiment.