Montasio is one of the most important PDO cheeses in North-East Italy. Despite its mountain ori-
gin, it is mainly produced in lowlands. Recently, in order to differentiate mountain products and to link them
to the breed more present in the territory, the PDO Montasio specification allows to labell products as
‘Mountain Product’ and ‘Only Italian Simmental breed’. A project is in progress with the aim of assessing the
economic and technical frame of a possible production system and studying the range of variability of the
product qualitative characteristics. In the first phase of the project, one cheese factory with 20 associated
dairy farms and one alpine farm, for a total of 350 Italian Simmental cows, were involved. A survey at farm
level provided data useful to support a marketing strategy. A first experimental trial focused on the quality of
cheese produced from cows grazing on alpine pasture or kept indoors. A more recent study aimed to define
the quality of the Montasio cheese in relation to pasture type and level of supplementation. The results of the
project within the framework of the increase of product value will be discussed.
