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BioCaseus 2017

A success beyond all expectation!

BIOCASEUS 2017, the International Organic Cheese Prize, has been organized by Consorzio Ecosviluppo Sardegna, in collaboration with Veneto Agricoltura, IFOAM, Onaf, SOIL Association (United Kingdom), BioForum Vlaanderen (Belgium), Ecovalia – Asociaciòn Valor Ecològico (Spain) and the support of ICEA – Istituto per la Certificazione Etica ed Ambientale.

A Prize born in 1999 to spread the organic cheese quality, that in this edition had the participation of 174 cheeses from 9 European Countries.

All the cheeses were evaluated by an International Jury, coordinated by the Responsible of the Sensory Analysis Laboratory of the “Istituto per la Qualità e le Tecnologie Agroalimentari” of Veneto Agricoltura, composed of 57 specialists from ONAF (National Organization Cheese Tasters) and the DOP Safeguarding Cheese Consortiums, buyers of the dairy products in the Italian and abroad distribution.

We got this year 51 winner cheeses, divided in 19 categories (depending on milk, aging and production method). The general placement is available online on www.biocaseus.eu .

“Every cheese has been evaluated by 7 judges for his smell, taste, structure, appearance, color, holes and texture – explained mr Egon Giovannini, the Prize and Jury coordinator – The evaluation file used in this competition awarded the 60% of the whole rating for the organoleptic aspects – as smell, taste and structure –, the 30% for the visual characteristics of the rind and the inside, and the 10% for the texture.”

The judgement about the high quality of all the participating cheeses was unanimous; all the judges worked with objective standards and actually without prejudices (ugly and organic is better than beauty and conventional!). Moreover, the cheeses got a medium score of 82,40/100: this proves that Organic Cheeses are really tasty and also that they can truly translate the uniqueness and the culture of the people and the placese that made them. The Award Ceremony will take place at the Nuremberg BioFach 2017, by the ICEA stand (Hall 1/1-351) at 10 am on February the 16th; in this area the winner cheeses will be available for taste for the whole BioFach duration.

“As ICEA we have been at the BioFach from the begin of our activity, to improve professionally and be inspired, to grown up and realize how the Organic World is moving in an International perspective – comments mr Pietro Campus, ICEA President. In the 2017 Edition, we decided to use our visibility and our placement in Nuremberg to host the Biocaseus Award Ceremony, the main International Contest dedicated to the organic cheeses. The passion of the producers and their strength connection with the habitat, that characterize the organic cheese production, are elements that translate so well our idea of “sustainability”, and if the experiment – as we truly believe – will work, we’ll go straight ahead on this way, hosting in the future editions other events related to specific productions”.

Source: Press release from 25/01/2017