Grana Padano
Grana Padano, the best selling PDO cheese in the world, is proud to be appearing at the BBC Good Food Shows alongside not-for-profit organisation Slow Food UK.
Grana Padano and Slow Food UK will join forces once again this winter at the upcoming MasterChef Live in London, before extending their partnership to include the BBC Good Food Show Winter in Birmingham in November . With a long standing partnership in Italy, the companies joined forces for the first time in the UK last year for the BBC consumer shows.
Grana Padano will be featured within the Slow Food UK Pavillion where guests will be able to sample two vintages of the traditional Italian cheese, and learn more about the Grana Padano and Slow Food UK partnership. VIP guests will also get the opportunity to sample the vintages as part of a bespoke taste workshop with Slow Food.
Both non-profit associations, Grana Padano and Slow Food UK, share many key values such as promoting premium quality artisan food that has a rich heritage and history. Grana Padano has been a part of Italy’s proud gastronomic heritage for over 1,000 years and is the best selling PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) cheese in the world. It is a versatile Italian hard cheese that is matured to have a crumbly texture with a sweet but strong taste.
As a PDO cheese, Grana Padano was recognised by European law in 1996. It is a high quality product which is controlled at every stage of the production process, from the farm to the table. All milk used in the production of Grana Padano comes from specific designated regions including Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto, Emilia Romagna in the province of Piacenza and part of the region of Trentino Alto Adige in the province of Trento.
Slow Food UK is part of the global, grassroots Slow Food movement. It champions biodiversity with the UK Ark of Taste, a catalogue of rare artisan food products and breeds, and has various Education, Engagement and Experience initiatives that its active network of 55 local groups can deliver. The production, protection and promotion of Grana Padano cheese is overseen by the Consorzio per la tutela del Formaggio Grana Padano (Consortium for the protection of Grana Padano cheese) which brings together producers, curers and retailers and ensures that every wheel of cheese is made to traditional, exact standards so that it can be awarded its P.D.O. status.
With more than 4 million wheels produced every year by around 154 producers and over 52,000 workers, Grana Padano is a hugely important product for Italian agriculture. In addition, one million wheels of the cheese are exported worldwide every year making Grana Padano the best selling PDO* cheese in the world. Grana Padano has a crumbly texture to which it owes its name ("grana" meaning "grainy"). "Padano" refers to the name of the valley where the cheese is produced, the Po Valley. The first Grana Padano cheese was produced in the Po Valley in Northern Italy by Cistercensian monks, who invented a way of transforming the surplus milk into a cheese which was slowly matured to reach its prime.
Founded in Italy in 1989, the global Slow Food movement links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment. Slow Food believes that food should taste good and give pleasure; should be clean: produced in a sustainable way with as little negative impact on our environment as possible; and should be fair: producers should be rewarded fairly for their skill and labour.