This paper deals with Montasio cheese, an Italian cheese with denomination of origin, produced in the North-east of Italy. Given the presence of local similar products which can partly share Montasio cheese's market, it seems to be interesting to better characterize this cheese.For this purpose, the free amino acids composition of samples coming from eleven local dairies with denomination of origin and produced at three different times and ripening degrees has been determined by gas chromatography. On available data we used linear and non linear statistical methods (explorative data analysis or EDA and principal component analysis or PCA). We pointed out that the samples produced in the eleven above-mentioned dairies considerably differ in their aminoacid composition. On the other side, the different production times do not affect the final product very much, while the same 60 days old cheese (when it is ready to be commercialized) can be clearly distinguished from the Half-ripened on.
