Centro Cheese on Wheels

Awareness campaign takes unique cheeses to the cities of Lisbon and Porto

06

What is a PDO Cheese? How do you identify a PDO Cheese? What sets them apart from the rest? These are questions many Portuguese people still find hard to answer today. There is still a great deal of food illiteracy, and this travelling exhibition aims to put all these terms on the tip of everyone's tongue, not least because many people still cannot recognise this qualified product.

The message is simple: by consuming Centro PDO cheeses, people are choosing products of Portuguese origin and high value, but also preserving heritage, the authenticity of territories and the landscapes, through the upkeep of the countryside. Indeed, by choosing to buy PDO cheeses, consumers are helping preserve an economic activity of real importance to the Centro region, giving value to the professions of shepherd and cheesemaker and combating desertification in rural areas.

After a difficult year marked by severe drought and major fires, the sector demonstrates, with this further innovative initiative, its resilience and its determination to seize the future. There is an urgent need to add value to these high-quality endogenous products and to make genuine flavours the most appreciated ones — and for that, there is nothing better than direct contact with consumers.

“There is a need for close-up actions that allow consumers to see that choosing a qualified product over an unqualified one is a guarantee of superior quality, genuineness and authenticity, and for that reason deserves their full confidence. It is therefore relevant to raise consumer awareness so that they can easily identify a qualified cheese on a supermarket shelf or at other points of sale”, stresses InovCluster.

It is worth recalling that Centro Region PDO Cheeses are made, by obligation, in the regions of Serra da Estrela, Beira Baixa and Rabaçal, with raw sheep's milk or sheep's and goat's milk (depending on the cheese) from native breeds or breeds perfectly adapted to these territories, and carry a historical legacy of different generations, respecting and giving value to a body of ancestral know-how. They also follow strict rules of hygiene and food safety. Together, these characteristics give these cheeses a distinctive quality and unique, inimitable flavours.

Behind these cheeses there are faces and hands, there are shepherds and cheesemakers — which means cheese production is also of vital importance to the economic and social dynamics of a set of rural territories, and to the environment too, since it contributes to maintaining and preserving distinctive landscapes and species.

The Centro Region Cheese Sector Valorisation Programme is a partnership of 15 organisations, including inter-municipal communities, sector associations, higher education and R&TD institutions and other bodies with a relevant role in adding economic value to Centro Region PDO Cheeses, led by InovCluster – the Centro Agri-industrial Cluster Association, co-funded by CENTRO2020, PORTUGAL 2020 and the EU through the ERDF.