IN the laboratories of Crea, the national agri-food research body, a group of scientists is working on the creation of a large digital fingerprint of Grana Padano Dop through the analysis of its DNA. A database of exclusive characteristics, by ingredients, geographical origin and supply chain passages, useful to distinguish the original product from adulterations and imitations. The pilot project concerns only Grana Padano, but the goal is to create a reference archive for all Italian PDOs. And the goal is to protect the made in Italy. A similar test, which already exists for extra virgin olive oil, was accepted in 2016 as evidential evidence during a lawsuit. DNA analysis revealed that a batch of oil, marketed as 100% Italian, actually contained Syrian, Turkish, Moroccan and Tunisian olive varieties.
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Food fraud is also a real problem in the dairy sector, even if, experts say, it concerns products made in Italy abroad and outside Europe rather than Italy. “In our country there are fewer scams than in the past because we have managed to moralize the system”, he says Stefano Berni, general manager of the Grana Padano Protection Consortium. According to the data collected by the Central Inspectorate on fraud repressions in 2020 only 5% of the samples checked were out of standard, a positive figure considering a sector with a long supply chain and supervised by numerous controls.
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«Each cheese, based on milk, geographical origin and production steps, contains its own DNA, present in a set of microbes and other specific cells of animal origin. All forms of Grana, thanks to the disciplinary, are born within the same production chain and therefore share a microbial profile that distinguishes them from other cheeses, albeit similar, but produced with different steps and raw materials “, he explains. Giorgio Giraffe, research manager of Crea Zootecnia and Aquaculture and scientific coordinator of the project. He adds: “The test we are developing is useful for identifying the so-called discrepancies, ie variations in the origin and deviations in the production and transformation parameters of milk into cheese”. An example: the diet of dairy cows has a direct effect on the microbial composition of the cheese, so if the cows are fed in a different way from what the specification provides, the test can detect this. Or the milk: in Grana Padano it is raw and then partially decimated by natural surfacing. “If it is pasteurized, which imitators can do to pursue greater qualitative and organoleptic uniformity, the DNA of the cheese could change. Likewise, the microbial profile could vary according to the place of production of the raw material, so we could notice if the milk does not come from the production area provided for by the specification. “Which in this case includes five regions: Piedmont, Trentino, Emilia-Romagna, but above all Lombardy and Veneto.” For the consortium – Berni continues – it is a useful test to ensure that the milk is milked in these areas and not in others “.
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According to experts in the sector, the tool developed by Crea could help unmask those who use non-Italian milk or milk from the area delimited by the specifications, and could also help strengthen the supervision of grated products, a thriving market but more vulnerable to fraud for the ease with which Dop products can be mixed with other imported or non-Dop grating cheeses. Making food control more and more accurate and technological is an added value both for those who sell them and for those who buy them.
Products of a certain quality are chosen for their flavor, but also to have an extra guarantee in terms of nutritional characteristics. “Long aging means less water and more nutrients,” he explains Michela Barichella, member of the scientific committee of the Grana Padano Observatory. “Choosing a hard, aged cheese means choosing a product that is particularly rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals. And a lot of calcium: so much so that women who need to strengthen their bones and prevent osteoporosis are advised to consume 30 grams per day”. Furthermore, concludes the dietician, “another peculiarity of long-aged cheeses is the almost total absence of lactose, which makes them suitable even for intolerant ones”.
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