Un formaggio tradizionale delle valli bergamasche: lo Strachitunt.

The Strachitunt (or Strachitund) cheese is produced with raw cow milk in the Bergamo area of Italy. It is a mouldy cheese with at least 60 days of ripening. The cheesemaking technology involves the mixture of two curds (one warm and the other cold, with the latter obtained the previous evening), alternatively placed in one cylindrically-shaped mould. Strachitunt is salted dry and punctured after 30 days with a copper needle to ensure that the environmental moulds will penetrate during the aging period. Nowadays, Strachitunt is frequently made by marginal farmers adopting the traditional technology in small-sized milk production and processing. The farmers intend to maintain the old tradition, handing it down to the next generation. According to D.M. 18/07/00, Strachitunt has been placed on a list reporting the most valuable traditional products made in the Region of Lombardia. This study reported 13 trials of Strachitunt cheesemaking, performed either in a small industrial plant or in 3 differently located cheese factories (one in the mountain and two in the plains). The cheesemaking technologies and microbiological analyses performed on milk, curd (SBC, lactic acid bacteria, contaminating microorganisms, coliforms, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, yeasts, and moulds), and ripened cheese (with addition of Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes) were studied and compared. Chemical analyses were also performed on these cheeses at the end of the ripening period. It is concluded that the cheesemaking technology of Strachitunt is still traditional, and cheese ripened for more than 2 months is a safe product, in spite of the poor quality of the raw material and of low standards in the working conditions.