ABOUT US  |  LOCATION  |  HISTORY  | PRODUCTION  |  STATUTE & COMMUNICATED  |  CONTACTS  | CALECC  |  PRESIDIO

October 2003
Slow Food Foundation Bitto "Valli del Bitto" is official
"Slow Food Foundation" is born trying to save a great cheese that risks estinction

A GREAT TRADITION
Bitto cheese represents, without any doubt, one of the symbols of the dairy industry in Lombardy. This cheese of great tradition and perfect ripening is in fact deeply bound to its valleys. Its origins are rooted in Val Gerola and Val di Albaredo, two valleys in the province of Sondrio which were shaped by the stream that gives the name to the product. The cheese produced in these pasturelands, at an altitude between 1400 and 2000 m, maintains some special features. In order to exalt the quality of the cheese, the cattle breeders and dairymen make every effort to keep the traditional techniques alive. Moreover, they play an essential role in the conservation of the environment and of the alpine biodiversity.

First of all they arrange their pastures in rotation: during the three-month-pasture, the cattle are lead from the lowest to the highest halts through different stages. Along the way they find the traditional calècc – small and very old huts made of stone which can be moved from one place to the other and which are used in the process of production. Thanks to these itinerant constructions it is possible to work the milk when still warm. Furthermore, 10-20 % of the milk used in the production comes from a special breed of goat, the so called Orobic goat, which the cattle breeders bring to summer pastures together with their herds. This practice helps in the preservation of this rare breed, while the adding of their particular milk gives the cheese its special taste and persistency. In addition to this, the cattle breeders milk their cows still by hands in order to assure perfect hygienic condition. The soft rind of Bitto cheese, warrant of perfect ripening, depends on the process of dry-salting. Finally, integrators in the cattle-feeding and the addition of additives, preservatives and enzymes in the process of production are explicitly forbidden.

THE HISTORICAL VALLEYS OF BITTO CHEESE
The cheese is named after the stream Bitto which flows into the Adda in the small town of Morbegno. The aim of the association called “Society of the dairymen of the Bitto Valleys” (Associazione produttori Valli del Bitto) is that of increasing the value of the cheese and improving its production in the original pasturelands. The practices and techniques supported by its members have positive effects both on the quality of the cheese and on the environmental conservation. Nevertheless, they also imply a marked rise in the energies and resources employed. It is demanded, therefore, that the market acknowledges the situation so that the producers can receive a suitable reward for their fundamental efforts in the conservation of the landscape. The alpine pasturelands, in fact, once untended, deteriorate rapidly and in a few years time it is virtually impossible to recover them.