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Parmigiano Reggiano
Via J.F. Kennedy, 18
42100 Reggio Emiliao

Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano
Via J.F. Kennedy, 18
42100 Reggio Emilia

Cows' milk cheese, from cows fed mainly on fodder from polyphite or lucerne meadows, half-fat, cooked, slowly maturing, cylindrical in shape with a slightly convex or almost straight base with straight slightly edged sides, for table use or grating.
Produced in the entire territory of the provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena and neighbouring communes in the provinces of Mantua and Bologna, forming a continuous area.
From numerous historical sources, it appears that the most significant contribution made to the actual beginnings of the product came from the Benedictine abbeys, which, in medieval times , helped to drain the area in question, also disseminating technical information about how to process the milk which was handed down from century to century. Etymologically, the cheese bears the name of the two provinces from which it originated and became well known.
The milk, taken from two milkings of which one was left to stand so that it could be skimmed, is coagulated with calf's rennet, followed by the cutting of the curd, draining and cooking to obtain a homogeneous caseous, well-consolidated mass and is then put into appropriate moulds; after a few days salting takes place and then natural maturation for at least 12 months.
As for natural factors, the soil characteristics of the area which runs from the ridge of the Appenines to the river Po should be borne in mind, as should the climatic conditions which directly affect both the natural flora and the particular fermentation characteristics of the product.