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Cheese from Italy, Po valley

Grana Padano PDO

Raw cow milk, part-skimmed by letting the cream rise at 8–20 °C, is set in copper-lined vats with calf rennet after a natural whey starter is added. The fine curd is cooked to no more than 56 °C, rests under the whey up to 70 minutes, is moulded in marking bands for at least 36 hours and brined 14–30 days. It ripens at 15–22 °C and may be sold only after 9 months.

Fully documentedCheese9.5 months – 10 monthsPDO (EU)Family: Parmigiano Reggiano

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification fixes limits, not a recipe; the only dose it gives is lysozyme per 100 kg of milk. Wheels weigh 24–40 kg.
Raw cow milk from cows milked twice a day or by free-access robotsCollected within 24 hours of the first milking and kept at no less than 8 °C; part-skimmed by natural creaming to a fat/casein ratio of 0.80–1.05 in the vat[gp-disciplinare]
Natural whey starter (siero innesto naturale)[gp-disciplinare]
Calf rennet[gp-disciplinare]
Lysozyme (optional; not for Trentingrana)Up to 2.5 g per 100 kg of milk[gp-disciplinare]
Salt, as brine[gp-disciplinare]
Starternatural whey starter; native lactic bacteria may be added when it is weak

Total time across the recorded steps: 9.5 months – 10 months

Start
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8–20 °C

What changes: Cream rises from the resting raw milk and part of it is skimmed off

Step 1 of 7
Skim by natural creaming
Time
Not documented
Temperature
8–20 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Lactobacillus helveticus
L. casei

The milk may not be heat-treated or otherwise processed before cheesemaking; it arrives at no less than 8 °C.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Raw cow milk, part-skimmed by letting the cream rise at 8–20 °C, is set in copper-lined vats with calf rennet after a natural whey starter is added. The fine curd is cooked to no more than 56 °C, rests under the whey up to 70 minutes, is moulded in marking bands for at least 36 hours and brined 14–30 days. It ripens at 15–22 °C and may be sold only after 9 months. Made in 7 steps over 9.5 months – 10 months. The longest step, ripen, takes at least 9 months (Consorzio Tutela Grana Padano 2022) and runs at 15–22 °C (Consorzio Tutela Grana Padano 2022). Lactic bacteria of the natural whey starter; the specification names native Lactobacillus helveticus, L. lactis and L. casei as the species that may be added to strengthen it does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 9 monthsSet[gp-disciplinare]Ripen
Temperature15–22 °CSet[gp-disciplinare]Ripen

What makes this one different

Like Parmigiano Reggiano but with a shorter minimum ripening (9 months), and lysozyme is allowed against late blowing.

Milk
Raw cow milk, kept at 8 °C or more, part-skimmed by natural creaming at 8–20 °C; lysozyme up to 2.5 g per 100 kg of milk is allowed against late blowing
Starter
Natural whey starter; native lactobacilli may be added when the whey is too weak
Setting
Calf rennet at about 35–40 °C (ONAF); the curd is broken into fine grains
Cooking
Cooked to a maximum of 56 °C, then left under the whey for no more than 70 min
Moulding
At least 36 h in marking bands under a wooden disc
Salting
Brine for 14–30 days
Ripening
9 months from moulding at 15–22 °C; "riserva" means at least 20 months
Size
Wheels of 24–40 kg, 35–45 cm across and 18–25 cm high; fat in dry matter at least 32%

Related ferments

Made the grana padano pdo way

Safety

The milk stays raw. A review of seven challenge studies on Grana Padano, Parmigiano Reggiano and Emmental found that pathogens added at high levels fell by more than 4 log10 within 24–48 hours, mainly during cooking and acidification, and mycobacteria were gone within 90 days of ripening. The review notes that EU rules do not treat these steps as equal to pasteurisation.

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella Typhimurium and Staphylococcus aureus, added to the milk in the challenge trials reviewed; they fell by more than 4 log10 within 24–48 hours; Mycobacterium bovis and M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis, added to the milk in the trials reviewed and eliminated during ripening within 90 days.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The Grana Padano Protection Consortium's history page says the original recipe is nearly a thousand years old and tells that the Cistercian monks of Chiaravalle Abbey, which was founded in 1134–1135 on marshy land near Milan, made a long-keeping hard cheese from their surplus milk. It adds that Isabella d'Este sent the cheese as a gift to the Dukes of Ferrara in 1504. On 1 June 1951 the Stresa agreement set rules for cheese names and split "grana lodigiano" into today's Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano. The Protection Consortium was founded on 18 June 1954, Presidential Decree No. 1269 of 30 October 1955 recognised the name, and the EU registered it as a PDO in 1996.

  1. [gp-disciplinare] Consorzio Tutela Grana Padano, Disciplinare di produzione DOP Grana Padano (2022)spec
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF technical sheet, Grana Padano DOPweb
  3. [giraffa2021] Giraffa G. 2021, The Microbiota of Grana Padano Cheese. A Review, Foods 10(11):2632 (abstract)paper
  4. [bonilauri2025] Bonilauri P., Rosamilia A., Benedetti S., Daminelli P., Losio M.N. et al. 2025, Can the Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano production process guarantee a reduction in pathogenic microorganisms equivalent to the pasteurization process?, Italian Journal of Food Safety 15(1) (published online 16 December 2025) (abstract)paper
  5. [gp-history] Consorzio Tutela Grana Padano, History and heritage (the consortium's account of the cheese's history), granapadano.itweb
  6. [reg-1107-96] Commission of the European Communities, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1107/96 of 12 June 1996 on the registration of geographical indications and designations of origin under the procedure laid down in Article 17 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92, Official Journal L 148, 21.6.1996, p. 1spec