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Cheese from Italy, Veneto

Formaggio NevegàlNevegàl

Nevegàl is a mild, semi-hard cow cheese named after the Alpe del Nevegàl near Belluno. Raw milk is set with powdered calf rennet at about 30 °C in 40 minutes, the curd is broken to maize-grain size and semi-cooked at 40 °C for 40 minutes. The wheels drain a day in hoops, are brined about a day and ripen about 30 days.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe regional sheet gives the method but no amounts. A wheel weighs about 4 kg.
Raw whole cow milk, mostly from Italian Brown and Brown Swiss cows[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Powdered calf rennet[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt (brine)[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 32 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactobacillusPediococcusLactococcusEnterococcus30 °C

What changes: Powdered calf rennet goes into the raw milk at about 30 °C and sets it in 40 minutes

Step 1 of 6
Warm the milk and set it with powdered rennet
Time
40 min
Reported
Temperature
30 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacillus
Pediococcus
Lactococcus
Enterococcus

Output: set curd.

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

Nevegàl is a mild, semi-hard cow cheese named after the Alpe del Nevegàl near Belluno. Raw milk is set with powdered calf rennet at about 30 °C in 40 minutes, the curd is broken to maize-grain size and semi-cooked at 40 °C for 40 minutes. The wheels drain a day in hoops, are brined about a day and ripen about 30 days. Made in 6 steps over 32 days. The longest step, ripen, takes 30 days (Regione del Veneto). Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, Lactococcus and Enterococcus, named as the most abundant genera of endogenous milk flora in 2-month-ripened raw-milk cheeses from Trentino malghe does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 daysReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen
Temperature30 °CReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Warm the milk and set it with powdered rennet

What makes this one different

Nevegàl is a young, semi-cooked raw-milk cheese ripened only about a month, so it stays mild and melts well. It is made in considerable quantities and is found in small and medium retail across the Veneto.

Rind
Thin to almost absent, soft, straw yellow
Size
Ø 25–30 cm, height 5–7 cm, about 4 kg
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is used raw and the cheese ripens only about 30 days. Raw-milk cheese can carry Listeria, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, and Listeria and that E. coli can kill. ANSES, the French food-safety agency, advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat it, except cooked pressed kinds such as Gruyère; this curd is only semi-cooked. Cutting off the rind does not remove the risk.

Hazards the sources name: Coagulase-positive staphylococci in curd, reaching almost 5 log CFU/g in the two Trentino malghe that used no starter (a related semi-cooked malga cheese); Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella were not found there; In raw-milk cheese from alpine dairies of north-eastern Italy (a related product, not this cheese; surveillance 2012–2025), coagulase-positive staphylococci over the limit in 2.3 % of samples, staphylococcal enterotoxins in 2.5 %, Listeria monocytogenes in 1.3 %, E. coli O157 in none.

History and sources

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

The cheese is named after the Nevegàl mountain area near Belluno, snowy in winter and rich in fodder in summer. Small rotating dairies (latterie turnarie) of the area made the first wheels.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione del Veneto, Atlante dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali del Veneto, Formaggi, 'Formaggio Nevegàl', p. 159 (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Formaggio Nevegàl'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Formaggio Nevegàl' (id 1079)web
  4. [lucchini2018] Lucchini R, Cardazzo B, Carraro L, et al. 2018, Contribution of natural milk culture to microbiota, safety and hygiene of raw milk cheese produced in alpine malga, Italian Journal of Food Safety 7(1), a study of semi-cooked raw-milk malga cheeses in Trentinopaper
  5. [prandi2026] Prandi I, Pezzuto A, Massaro A, et al. 2026, A Fourteen-Year Surveillance Study on the Microbiological Status of Raw Milk Dairy Products from Alpine Dairies in Northeastern Italy, Foods 15(9):1479paper
  6. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov