Congratulations to INGREEN project partner, Mambelli, for winning the “very fresh” category of the Italian Cheese Awards 2021 with their Squacquerone di Romagna P.D.O. al Sale di Cervia.
From all over Italy, 1,500 artisanal cheeses were sent in to compete for the title of best dairy products. The victory came thanks to Mambelli’s cheese that represents the best of Romagna, namely milk from selected and strictly local dairy farms, the sweet salt from Cervia, a rigorous discipline that has been certified as Protected Origin (P.O.) since 2015, and all the passion of a family that has been making cheeses for three generations.
What started as a small family business with grandmother Elsa making ricotta on their dairy farm and selling it at local markets, has now grown to a dairy factory that employs 27 people. Throughout the years this artisanal dairy expanded their traditional Ricotta di Romagna, with new products such as Squacquerone, Casatella, Ravigiolo, Mascarpone and Caciotte, as well as 12 flavors of long fermentation yogurt and squacquerone cream. Their strong logistical network allows Mambelli to distribute very fresh products to selected destinations throughout the world without resorting to using preservatives.
The company’s secret lies in conserving the precious traditional recipes, without forgetting to innovate and keep up with modern times. Taking care of the environment is important to Mambelli, hence they are aiming to replace all plastic packaging with compostable materials. In the INGREEN project, they are investigating how to exploit the whey derived from making Squacquerone. The whey is fermented in special machinery together with a yeast supplied by the Food Science and Technology laboratories of the Cesena Campus of the University of Bologna. The caciotta produced through this process may be better protected from a microbiological point of view, which could allow Mambelli to avoid using an anti-mold film that makes the rind inedible. By using the biotechnological processes developed by INGREEN the end product will be totally natural. The first caciotta prototypes have been made in the project and results will be shared soon.
This news item is based on the article ‘Lo Squacquerone di Romagna Dop Mambelli vince l’Oscar dei formaggi all’Italian Cheese Awards. La storia di un successo’, published on ravennanotizie.it. Read the full article here.
