Take a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano, a whole wheel. Everything you might want to know about where it comes from, about its history, is already there, stamped on its rind.
The cheese, as soon as it has been taken out of the boiler, has been placed in a dotted band which has left the characteristic "Parmigiano Reggiano" stamped on the rind, together with the serial number, which uniquely identifies the dairy of production. Let's imagine that we have a wheel bearing the serial number 257 in front of us: by going to the special section of the Parmigiano Reggiano website I can discover that this wheel was produced at the Caseificio Agricolo Milanello.
But how long has this wheel been matured? I can also find out by reading the cheese wheel: together with the dot and the serial number, the fascera has also left the month and year in which the cheese was produced on the heel.
But that's not all: the oval stamping on the heel also tells us that the cheese has been matured for at least 12 months, that it has been carefully screened by the Consortium's beaters and has passed all the tests, proving that it is worthy of the name Parmigiano Reggiano.
Finally, for those who want to know everything, the casein mark on the flat of the wheel even contains a unique alphanumeric code that allows us to trace that wheel back to the precise day of production and the boiler used to produce it.
